What Corey Feldman said is true. Lethal Weapon 5 is still happening, and Mel Gibson will direct. With Richard Donner’s passing this past July, the legendary director left a huge void in Hollywood. At the age of 91, he was still working on what would be the last Lethal Weapon film in the franchise. “This is the final one,” the late filmmaker told The Daily Telegraph. “It’s both my privilege and duty to put it to bed. It’s exciting, actually… Hahaha! It’s the last one, I’ll promise you that.”
Over this weekend, Mel Gibson, who portrayed Martin Riggs in the franchise, announced during the Q&A at ‘An Experience with Mel Gibson’ in London, that he would be helming the final film in the franchise. “The man who directed all the Lethal films, Richard Donner, he was a big guy,” Gibson said speaking to the audience. “He was developing the screenplay and he got pretty far along with it. And he said to me one day, ‘Listen kid, if I kick the bucket you will do it.’ And I said: ‘Shut up.’ But he did indeed pass away.”
“But he did ask me to do it and at the time I didn’t say anything. He said it to his wife and to the studio and the producer. So I will be directing the fifth one.”
Mel Gibson had hinted at the prospect while speaking with Donner’s long time friend and The Goonies star, Corey Feldman. Feldman relayed the story, saying, “One of the things Mel mentioned to me, because we started talking about Lethal Weapon 5 vs. Goonies 2 and that whole debacle, and I said I knew that there was no way he could have pulled off Lethal 5. Because, you know, he just didn’t have it in him. You can’t look at seven monitors at once and shoot seven cameras during these action sequences and watch every detail of everything when you’re 91 years old. It’s a lot of pressure… God bless him, he was motivated and he would have shown up on set and done his very best, no question, but I knew it was a lot to ask of a 91-year-old man.”
“So, Mel says to me, ‘Well, you know, people have been saying maybe I should just direct it.’ And I said, ‘You should! That would be great.’ So, who knows. The point of that was, maybe this will encourage Mel to take over the helm and direct Lethal Weapon 5.”
While it hasn’t been confirmed if Gibson or Danny Glover will be reprising their roles, the war-cry from the fans are calling for the reunion. Producer Dan Lin spoke of the project in January 2020, and that seems to have been the plan. “ We’re trying to make the last Lethal Weapon movie. And Dick Donner’s coming back. The original cast is coming back. And it’s just amazing. The story is very personal to him. Mel and Danny are ready to go, so it’s about the script.” We’ll keep you updated, and maybe we’ll see the originals ride again! This news originated at NME.
Source: movieweb.com