MOVIE NEWS – Mel Gibson has shared another update on the progress of Lethal Weapon 5, revealing that he already has a “really good script”.

It’s been a couple of years since Mel Gibson first announced he was thinking about making Lethal Weapon 5. Since then, not much has changed in the status of the buddy-movie sequel, which has been said to be too old for the kind of mischief Gibson and Danny Glover are getting into. Since Gibson first hinted at a belated sequel, the original Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner has passed away, and Gibson himself has taken the director’s chair. Now, while talking about the thriller Bandit, Gibson gave Screen Rant an encouraging update. Here’s what he said:

“It’s [coming along] great!”

“We’ve got a really good screenplay that I developed. Well, Donner developed it, Richard Donner, of course, developed it with Richard Wenk, and they had a really good template. I had the honor of sitting down, after Richard passed away, with the writer and doing a couple more drafts and trying to do it in the spirit of what we thought Donner might [want], because I knew the guy so well.”

“We tried to get that flavor, and we were pretty happy with what we came up with. The only delay is now with all the shake-up at Warners, with Discovery coming in and the new boss, and they chop everyone else up and throw them away and get new people. It always takes time for these companies to regroup, so that’s been a delay, but I’m pretty confident we’ll get this one up on its feet, probably shoot it in the first quarter of the New Year,” he said.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s merger, as the perfect material for HBO Max, could have sealed the fate of Lethal Weapon 5 before it even got off the ground. However, with other sequels like Evil Dead Rise and the DC movie Blue Beetle hitting the big screen, this could be the way to get the Mel Gibson-starring film into theatres.

The studio’s main concern around the film is whether there will be enough interest in a new Lethal Weapon instalment to justify theatrical distribution.

With nostalgia for the 80s and 90s never stronger, this may be Warner Bros. Discovery’s only chance to try to capitalise on the fad before it passes.

Of course, all of this is music for the future, as the film could be shelved at any time while the cameras aren’t rolling. (Sometimes even after…) But Gibson seems as confident as can be that filming will begin in early 2023. If that happens, Riggs and Murtaugh could return one last time in 2024. For those who need a little reminder of the odd couple’s previous outings, you can watch the first four Lethal Weapon movies on HBO Max.

Source: Screen Rant