Warner Bros has been seeing what’s in its cupboard for a potential reboot. And Lethal Weapon, Westworld and The Wild Bunch are amongst the candidates. Details here…
There's few of you out there, we've worked out, who are particularly enjoying the Hollywood reboot gravy train right now. Appreciating that occasionally things can turn out well (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Star Trek), the general consensus appears to tie in with our own.
Because we know, increasingly, what a reboot is shorthand for. It can mean that a franchise is being concreted over, so that we can all theoretically conveniently forget about early crappy entries in a franchise, and start from scratch.
Or it's about filling an ideas vacuum in a franchise-dominated market, where it's cheaper, easier, and less risk to revive the name of an older movie franchise, as opposed to launching something fresh and new.
Which brings us, friends, to Lethal Weapon.
Over the past few years, Warner Bros has, if you believe the assorted tales, looked quite hard at bringing Lethal Weapon 5 together. But, for whatever reason, it didn't come to fruition. And given Mel Gibson's standing in the movie community right now, there's absolutely no chance of him and Danny Glover getting together for a fifth film.
Plan B, then. For Warner Bros is now considering the reboot option. The news arose over at Deadline, which reports that a change in personnel at Warner Bros has resulted in a series of potential projects being assigned around the studio. Those projects include the aforementioned Lethal Weapon, as well as reboots of Westworld (which has been on the cards for some time) and The Wild Bunch (given fresh impetus by the stunning success of the Coen Brothers' new take on True Grit).
The upshot of them being given to different people within the studio to oversee is that they're in the hands of a different set of eager executives, and it's expected that they'll bring a new injection of enthusiasm for the assorted projects.
There's no guarantee at this stage that any of these films will happen, and Warner Bros may yet decide that the likes of Lethal Weapon are best left as they are. But we suspect that there's a real temptation at the studio to find a new combination of actors for a new take on the franchise.
Our thoughts? If Shane Black were to come back and write and direct, then we're in. If he doesn't, then we're out.
Our biggest fear? A new Lethal Weapon, starring Freddie Prinze Jr and Chris Tucker. If you can come up with a more fearful casting combination, then do leave it in the comments...
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