With a role confirmed for John Wick spin-off The Continental, Mel Gibson has announced something even bigger: he's in line to direct Lethal Weapon 5.
Variety is among the publications that has confirmed what Gibson said at an event in London. He remarked that he was asked to do the job by Richard Donner, before the man who made all four previous Lethal outings died in July this year.
"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,' Gibson said according to The Sun, which covered the event. "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."
Donner had indeed been aiming to make a new Lethal Weapon outing, with the hopes of reuniting Gibson and Danny Glover for one more runaround as mismatched buddy cops Riggs and Murtaugh. The franchise helped kick Gibson's career in particular into high gear and Donner had Richard Wenk working on a script. We'll see if anything comes of this...