Richard Donner Talks Abandoned LETHAL WEAPON 5

In 1987, director Richard Donner and screenwriter Shane Black came up with a new kind of action movie where the laughs were just as fast-paced as the thrills with Lethal Weapon, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The film made $120 million and led to three sequels in 1989, 1992 and 1998. With $900 million, the franchise was a huge success.

Unfortunately, after Lethal Weapon 4, everyone involved with the series went their separate ways. Although Gibson acted in blockbuster films like The Patriot, Chicken Run and What Women Want and directed the blockbuster Biblical drama The Passion of the Christ, he subsequently lost all public goodwill with his drunken Anti-Semetic remarks during an arrest in 2006; Gibson continued acting in 2010 with Edge of Darkness and followed a year later with The Beaver. Glover continues to act in films such as Saw, The Shaggy Dog, Be Kind Rewind and 2012. Donner essentially retired from directing after 16 Blocks and supervising Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. Black went for years unnoticed until he made Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which helped to reinvigorate Robert Downey Jr.'s career and was repaid by being chosen to direct Iron Man 3.

Fans of the Lethal Weapon series have been clamoring for a fifth film in the series. Gibson has denied wanting anything to do with the idea, if Donner will not direct. Black had reportedly written a fifth film following the Riggs and Murtaugh characters around for a day in "24"-like fashion. However, with 2012 being the 25th Anniversary of the original Lethal Weapon, Empire Magazine has accomplished an extremely difficult task in bringing back together Donner, Gibson and Glover. Donner revealed he had ideas of his own for a fifth film:

The two crazies decide to cool their lives, but it's impossible for them to stay out of situations. It starts with Riggs and Murtaugh out in the country in a motorhome. They're on a trip and they stop to get gas, but Roger forgets to put the brake on. So the motorhome rolls through a village, annihilating everything, and they get in serious trouble. It had a lot of heart, a lot of family. Rene [Russo, who played Lorna Cole], Darlene [Love, who played Trish Murtaugh], they would all have come back.

In June, all four of the Lethal Weapon films will be released on Blu-Ray. Would you like to have seen a fifth adventure with Riggs and Murtaugh?