It isn’t every day that you get to speak to one of your childhood heroes on the phone, but that’s precisely what happened to me recently when given the opportunity to interview the one and only Mel Gibson. The legendary star is out promoting a movie he’s in called Bandit, which tells the true story of bank robber Gilbert Galvan Jr (played by Josh Duhamel), who, in the 80s, robbed 59 banks all over Canada with little more than a handful of disguises and some frequent flyer miles. Gibson plays a shady character named Tommy Kay who helps fund his caper; in it, he seems to be having the time of his life. Indeed, Gibson seemed thrilled with how the film turned out and the experience of working with both director Allan Ungar (the famous Uncharted Live Action Fan Film) and Duhamel. We’ll have the full Q&A ready in a day or two, but while doing the interview, I couldn’t resist asking Gibson about the status of Lethal Weapon 5, which he seemed optimistic about.
Here’s what he told me:
“It’s in the works, you know? It’s one of those things whereby it’s a no-brainer if you ask me. I’ve worked on the screenplay, which, of course, was started by Donner (the late Richard Donner)…and of course, he and a guy had a pretty good template going. Donner, of course, passed away. And then I sat in and we kind of finished up the script and I had a blast working with Richard Wenk- the writer. You know, it’s a pretty good document. I dig it a lot. I think what’s held it up is that at Warners, they’re changing hats over there…you know…this guy got fired, and this guy took over and Discovery and all that stuff. You get lost in the shuffle sometimes as they try and regroup and sort themselves out. It’ll come. I’m not quite sure when but it’ll happen.”
Gibson also shared his thoughts on the late Richard Donner:
“He was the greatest. I loved that guy. I worked with him six times and he was just…a joy. He was the best.”
We’ll have much more coming from Gibson later this week, including a story about when he almost played James Bond, his thoughts on the underrated Get the Gringo, and his great time working with Ungar and Duhamel on Bandit (which is actually a great little movie).
Bandit opens in theatres and on-demand Friday via Quiver. Check back for our review and interviews with Josh Duhamel, Elisha Cuthbert and more later this week.