Just when it all seemed to be going so well, the wheels on the Lethal Weapon 5 bus have come tumbling off. Earlier this month we reported that legendary wordsmith Shane Black and uber-producer Joel Silver were gearing up to create another installment in the "I'm too old for this shit" saga, but now it seems the series' star, Mel Gibson, has decided to take a pass.
Speaking to The Los Angeles Times, Richard Donner, director and producer of all four Lethal Weapon movies, said: "Mel turned it down," Donner said. "I would like to think that Mel turned it down because I wasn't involved. Knowing Mel, I would like to think that. Would that be the kind of thing he does? It sure would be."
When last we spoke to Gibson about the possibility of returning as Riggs (around the release of the lacklustre effort that was Lethal Weapon 4), the Aussie actor replied: "I'm sure somebody is cooking on that but not me. I mean, how old could these two guys be? It would be like senior citizen's action movies... But hey, maybe there's a whole new market for that."
Age is never usually a factor in this sort of thing but with Gibson out of the picture and Donner not involved in the proposed next installment, it seems the director's assertion that "the project is pretty much dead in the water" is unfortunately true.
Let's just hope that Black and Silver don't try to take the franchise into a new direction. If Chris Rock (introduced as Danny Glover's son-in-law in Lethal Weapon 4) and Joe Pesci (the perpetually annoying Leo Getz) take over the reins, we're never watching another movie again.
You can read the full interview here.