After the passing of “Lethal Weapon” franchise director Richard Donner, there had been some question about whether “Lethal Weapon 5” would ever get made with original leads Mel Gibson and Danny Glover back in the saddle; more questionable given Gibson’s checkered past and their increasing ages, it seemed like the audience’s hunger for that project had since passed. But with Warner Bros.‘ attempt to coax Gibson to direct in the past, there had been some renewed expectations the project could happen again; that was a few years back, and the controversial actor/director has shared a minor update and some details on the long-gestating action sequel.
Gibson had a recent interview with Collider at Fan Expo Boston, which has been, to the shock of many an outlet platforming some increasingly sketchy Hollywood people in recent months, such as “Citizen Vigilante” actor Armie Hammer (holding a screening and Q&A for the anti-migrant murder fantasy pic after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct) and Johnny Depp in-character at an SDCC panel they hosted to promote “Ebenezer” (notable domestic abuse allegations and assulting a crew member while intoxicated on set). Of course, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, Gibson isn’t without his own private-life hiccups. He’s been accused of domestic abuse for hitting his ex-partner while holding their infant daughter and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in 2011, alongside previously documented antisemitism (actress Winona Ryder, who is Jewish, once recalling Gibson referring to her as an “oven dodger” at a party) and his other infamous racist tirades, including the use of the n-word in a threatening call to his aforementioned ex-partner.
Getting all that baggage out of the way, Gibson, after having tackled his “The Resurrection of the Christ” sequels to the box office hit “The Passion of the Christ” (seen by Jewish groups like the ADL as problematic at best), was eager to praise the “Lethal Weapon 5” script, but seemed to be well aware of some problems it faces from not only Warner Bros. but audiences as well.
“There were good things about each one, but as you say, they tend to get diluted out there a lot. And, you know, Donner, when he was 90 years old, was working on the fifth, and of course he passed away in the middle. So I got together with the writer, and we completed it thinking, ‘What would Donner do?’ That’s what we were thinking in the room, and I think that the fifth script is better than all of the others. But it’s tied up in some kind of industrial film hell that you can’t extract it from to make it,” Gibson said of the status of “Lethal Weapon 5.”
“The characters are quite different. They’re older. One’s retired. The other one’s on a desk job. He’s putting on too much weight, and it’s low-tech,” Gibson told Collider. “It doesn’t get into the big explosions and all this sort of stuff. But it still has the energy and, I think, drive of a big action film.” When Gibson was asked if he’d helm it, he doubled down on previous statements about Donner giving him his blessing: “Donner, God rest his soul, he said to me in this deep voice, he said, ‘Hey kid, if I drop off the perch, you’ll take this over, won’t you?’ I said, ‘Shut up! You’re not going anywhere.’ And of course he did. And, you know, when he passed away, I didn’t say anything. But apparently he had told other people that too, so they all came to me and said, ‘You direct it.’ I said, ‘Yeah, okay.’
That said, we don’t know how much longer a project like this will have a shelf life if they keep waiting for the right moment to do it, which may never come. By the time “Lethal Weapon 4” came around in 1998, they had added Rene Russo and Chris Rock as fellow LAPD cohorts, but it remains to be seen if they’d participate alongside Joe Pesci, who played their longtime comedic relief sidekick after being a tad picky about what projects he’s willing to make these days. From his own comments, it doesn’t sound like “Lethal Weapon 5” is going to get made anytime soon, but Gibson is totally game to make it for the studio if they ever greenlight it.
