Richard Donner claims Lethal Weapon 5 is inches away from go-ahead

Believe it or not, but we're pushing twenty years since we last saw Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) in LETHAL WEAPON 4. Since the release of that film, rumblings of a fifth installment have popped up now and again, but it always seemed quite unlikely. At long last, Murtaugh and Riggs truly were too old for this shit. However, just last week there were rumours that Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and Richard Donner were exploring the option of doing a fifth film at Warner Bros., and during an appearance on Spocklight: A Star Trek Podcast, Donner confirmed that not only is the project in the works, but that it's "inches away from getting the go-ahead" to do LETHAL WEAPON 5.

It's a story I came up with Channing Gibson, the writer who wrote [Lethal Weapon] 4, and I'm just having to work it out with the studio. If everybody steps up and we all get together, we'll make it. Mel and Danny are on board. If they don't… if it doesn't work out, at least we tried. But there's a good… a better chance that you will see the movie.

Somehow, I grew up without watching any of the LETHAL WEAPON movies, but I remedied that several years ago with my own little LETHAL WEAPON marathon. Although the franchise does slowly lose a little something as it goes on, they're still a huge amount of fun, and I'd jump at the chance to catch up with Riggs and Murtaugh again. No details on what sort of mis-adventures the pair could get up to this time, but Shane Black, who wrote the first LETHAL WEAPON, revealed his idea for a fifth film last year.

I wrote a 62-page treatment with my friend Chuck for “Lethal Weapon 5” that would’ve been, I think, a very good movie. It was interesting. 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.

What do you folks think? Are you down for another LETHAL WEAPON adventure with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover? Or should the franchise be left alone?