Mel Gibson to Direct ‘Lethal Weapon 5’

Mel Gibson is stepping behind the camera once again, this time to direct the latest — and likely, final — installment of the Warner Bros. action franchise Lethal Weapon.

The move comes after the project was put in limbo when director Richard Donner, who helmed all of the Weapon movies since their inception in 1987, died in July. Donner, at 91, was working on mounting the fifth installment.

The fifth outing has been in development on and off for years, with screenwriters coming and going. Richard Wenk, who wrote the Denzel Washington-starring Equalizer thrillers, wrote the latest draft.

This changing of the guard had been in the works for months and was blessed, if not instigated, by Lauren Shuler Donner, the wife of Richard Donner.

Dan Lin of Rideback is producing with Shuler Donner and Gibson now joining him. Rideback’s Jonathan Eirich and The Donners’ Company’s Derek Hoffman will exec produce.

Gibson proclaimed his taking over wile speaking at an Experience With… event in London Sunday.

“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.'” According to London’s 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.”

Weapon was one of the first studio movies to establish Gibson as a Hollywood star in North America after he had toplined several cross-over hits from his native Australia, The Mad Max movies and drama The Year of Living Dangerously among them.

It also launched the career of screenwriter Shane Black, whose spec script fused dark and comedic elements in a buddy cop format to tell the tale of a by the book family man detective who is paired with a temperamental detective who is suicidal after losing his wife.

The moves were 1980s hallmarks and a watermark many others tried to reach since, in terms of action, chemistry, and repartee. Warners even tried to mount reboots that starred younger actors.

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