Editorial Staff
You won’t believe this : I just drank a glass of water over a can of diet soda.
Joking.
But I’m not fibbing when I say, just the other night, I totally dreamt that Warner Bros would get a new “Lethal Weapon” movie up with Mel Gibson.
I must have been watching the “Daddy’s Home 2” trailer earlier, I think. Saw how ‘cool’ and fit (look at that wood-chopping scene!) Gibson is must have planted in my mind the possibility that, even with his age and despite the fact “Lethal Weapon” is now a series (featuring other dudes in the Riggs and Martaugh roles), a “Lethal Weapon 5” wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Particularly now that Hollywood seems to have forgiven Gibson for his past blunders.
Deadline report that Gibson, co-star Danny Glover and director Richard Donner are exploring the possibility of reuniting for a fifth film in the long-running action series with Warner Bros. “Lethal Weapon 4” writer Channing Gibson would apparently write the script. And the fact that they’ve commissioned a writer does suggest this is further along than “let’s just have a coffee and talk about it..”.
No word on the scenario for a possible fifth film but hopefully the original trio still remember what worked about the first two films in the series – that magic mix of hardcore action combined with maniacal humor. When they started to water down the action and make Riggs more ‘stable’ (as opposed to the “Lethal Weapon” he once was), the series lost something.
A few years back there was actually movement on a “Lethal Weapon 5” – but Gibson was too busy being a serious filmmaker, and quite frankly, I don’t think Warner saw the appeal in returning to that well. Not then, anyway. But now that they can see that the brand is still viable (the “Lethal Weapon” series does good numbers each week), that everyone is crazy for these nostalgic reunion series and films (“X-Files”, “Twin Peaks”, An Ivan Drago-led “Creed” sequel, a new “Terminator” with the original cast, “Star Wars”, “Indiana Jones” – you get the picture), and predominantly, that Gibson is a viable marquee name again, it’d seem they’re hotter for the idea now.
Channing Gibson (who also scripted The Rock’s “Walking Tall”) is scripting this latest instalment, whereas originally “Lethal Weapon” scribe Shane Black was in the mix to pen a fifth in the series. In a recent interview, “The Nice Guys” director spoke a little about his concept for the film : “It was essentially an older Riggs and Murtaugh in New York City during the worst blizzard in east coast history, fighting a team of expert Blackwater guys from Afghanistan that’s smuggling antiquities. And we had a young character that actually counter-pointed them. But I didn’t wanna do what people do when they’re trying to transition which is, they sorta put the two older guys in the movie, but really it’s about their son! And he’s gonna take over and we’re gonna do a spinoff. F**k that, if they’re gonna be in the movie, they’re gonna be in the movie — I don’t care how old they are.”
Indeed. Seems WB has heard the sentiment.
