Turns out they’re not too old for this s**t after all. According to Deadline, the creative trio of stars Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and director Richard Donner are now working with Warner Bros. on the long-gestating Lethal Weapon 5. Lethal Weapon 4 screenwriter Channing Gibson (no relation) will be returning to pen the script. The 87-year-old Donner (Superman, The Goonies, Maverick) has not been behind the camera since the 2006 Bruce Willis action film 16 Blocks.
A fifth part in the series has had a long a troubled history, with Donner and Channing Gibson initially planning part 5 until Warner Bros. decided to cede control of the franchise to its longtime producer Joel Silver in 2007. Writer and series creator Shane Black was brought onboard by Silver to pen a script that would have found Riggs and Murtaugh battling Blackwater antiquity smugglers during a New York City blizzard. Black hoped to direct the film as well, but Gibson nixed the idea of doing a Lethal movie without Donner. Warner Bros. then tried to reboot the series, at one point courting Chris Hemsworth to take over the Riggs role from Gibson, with Justin Lin mooted to direct a script by Will Beall.
In 2016, the franchise made its way to the small screen, with the Lethal Weapon TV series starring Damon Wayans and Clayne Crawford currently in its second season on FOX. There is no word on how a new movie might affect the show, but if Warners’ DC properties have taught us anything, it’s that characters can exist in two iterations across platforms at the same time.
The original Lethal Weapon, written by Shane Black and directed by Richard Donner, opened in 1987 and was a smash hit. Lethal Weapon 2 opened in 1989 and introduced Joe Pesci’s Leo Getz con man sidekick character. 1993’s Lethal Weapon 3 brought onboard Riggs’ love interest Sergeant Lorna Cole (Rene Russo), and 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4 enrolled Detective Lee Butters (Chris Rock) as part of the family. Altogether, the four films grossed a combined $955.2M worldwide.
What do you think about Lethal Weapon 5? Should they really pull the trigger on the sequel, or has it been too long? Let us know in the comments below!
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