THE Nice Guys is that rarest of movies: an action comedy where the funny stuff is just as integral as an abundance of bone-crunching violence and explosions.
A quick glance at its credits reveals why: the film comes from director and co-writer Shane Black and producer Joel Silver, the winning team behind hits such as Lethal Weapon and Iron Man 3.
However, the comedic chemistry between the films' two leads is also key to this silly, rough and tumble tale set in seedy, smoggy late-70s LA: Russell Crowe makes a great straight man for Ryan Gosling, as reluctantly partnered private eye Holland March (Gosling) and enforcer for hire Jackson Healy (Crowe) investigate a series of deaths linked to a porno film.
There's a lot of laughs on offer throughout the film, which combines both Gosling's natural talent for physical comedy with good old fashioned witty banter – with much improvising in both areas.
"We were both very respectful of the script," comments Crowe of how the pair approached their performances, "but we also brought ideas everyday and Shane trusted that we would work in the spirit of what he intended.
"There was a lot of stuff improvised on a daily basis and it wasn't discussed – it was just in the movie and we went with it."
For Gosling, the freedom to go 'off piste' was one of the joys of making The Nice Guys.
"It didn't work all the time, but it was nice to go into the scenes with the feeling that anything could happen," he enthuses of the shoot.
"Then, on the occasions when it did work, we kind found it together."
"The key to it is just about listening," continues Crowe on how the pair developed the spontaneous yet easy flowing rapport we see on screen.
"That is essentially all you are seeing: a couple of guys who are very aware that the other guy can do anything at any given moment, so you best tune in."
Of course, any comedy – improvised or otherwise – comes with the danger that the actors will be cracking each other up so much that filming might start to fall expensively behind schedule.
It seems that The Nice Guys was no exception.
"This little b*****d [Gosling] makes me laugh," confirms Crowe, whose character is required to remain fairly deadpan throughout the film.
"Sometimes, I would suspect he was up all night thinking of a way to make me laugh – he has a natural comedic gift. So yeah, I laughed my head off all the time.
"This one scene, we had blocked off Sunset Boulevard for a very simple shot: we have to come in, do a couple of lines of dialogue then drive away. And Ryan is just not on the script: he is just jamming on some idea that is in his head about German spank films and I am falling apart in the car trying to get my lines out.
"Meanwhile, Joel Silver is standing in the middle of Sunset saying 'I have the whole street blocked off to shoot my movie – not tonight guys, please?!'
"We're still sitting in the car and I say to Ryan, 'So, we going to stick to the script?'
"And Ryan says, 'No."
Thankfully, The Nice Guys team managed to find a way to get the film in the can on schedule. It's been a long time coming for co-writer Shane Black, a life-long fan of detective fiction who first came up with the idea many years ago.
He says: "Me and my writing partner Anthony Bagarozzi decided there weren’t enough private eye movies – not enough old-school, tough guy sort of stuff that you would have seen Lee Marvin or John Cassavetes in once upon a time.
"So, we set out to write this movie, sharing characters – which isn’t how you can write a film – but we came up with something over the years that, in various iterations, managed to 'fail upwards' until we got the right actors and now, 13 years later, you have The Nice Guys."
And who better to deliver Black's vision than the man who gave him his breakthrough gig 30 years ago on a little film called Lethal Weapon.
"Shane and I go back a long time," confirms producer Joel Silver, whose name is synonymous with Hollywood action movies.
"He was a 21-year-old college graduate from UCL when he wrote Lethal Weapon in 86. He was in Predator in 87 and we went on to do Lethal Weapon 2 in 89 and The Last Boy Scout in 1990.
"We worked together again on Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang in 2005 – but he had written The Nice Guys before that in 2001, which we actually tried to do as a television series at first.
"Finally, after we made Iron Man 3, it was one of those 'get out of jail free' cards – whatever Shane wants, he can do.
"He said 'I want to make Nice Guys'."
In fact, Ryan Gosling admits that he was a Shane Black fan from an early age. Interestingly, it wasn't Lethal Weapon that converted the 35-year-old star, but rather Black's more family-friendly project which appeared the same year:
"I was aware of Shane even before I knew his name, because Monster Squad was my favourite movie as a kid," reveals Gosling.
"It was one of the first movies I ever went around quoting dialogue from, so I guess I always appreciated his writing.
"On a fundamental level, The Nice Guys is a good detective story but Shane subverts it: you think it's going right and he takes you left. He creates characters that are hightened but at the same time, you feel like you know them."
And there's good news for anyone who leaves the cinema wanting more – The Nice Guys II is already being discussed.
"I love this idea of a sort of time-locked franchise, which means it will never catch up to us," explains Shane Black.
"I think a fun idea is a timeless private eye who proceeds through a series of historical incidents but will never get to the present day.
"So the sequel will be something in the 80s based on an issue of that era, so we can throw these guys up against that wall and see what sticks."
"There is a lot we can do with these characters, so it could be fun," confirms Crowe.
Over to you, Hollywood.
:: The Nice Guys is in cinemas now.
