Given its lucrative past, it stands to reason that Warner Bros would be keen to see what more they could extract from the Lethal Weapon cash cow. Shane Black (who wrote the script for the original and has more recently excelled with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) had drafted a treatment for LW5, using the original cast, however conflicting schedules had been problematic to overcome and Mel Gibson’s public profile has been deteriorating with each successive revelation regarding his private life.
Warner’s “new idea” (if something as predictable and derivative as a reboot can ever be so-called) is to take a fresh stab at the franchise and accordingly Will Beall has been brought in by them and Joel Silver to write a fresh script, relaunching the series with a new cast. Beall is a former Los Angeles police officer who wrote the novel L.A. Rex. His reputation as a screenwriter is on the rise on account of his script Gangster Squad, a period crime drama that you can read about here.
Apparently, Beall has pitched an idea that would retain the original’s “hard-R” tone, but it seems to me that this misses the point. Although Lethal Weapon itself is over 20 years old, the franchise itself continued until relatively recently and the original simply does not call for a remake, reboot or anything similar. It stands as one of the finest action films of the 80’s (or any other decade for that matter) and the idea to remake it seems to smack of nothing more or less than a dearth of new ideas. It seems that remakes are in and of themselves problematic enough, without WB picking a film so singularly lacking any clear need of being remade. Just because Speed, Die Hard, Face/Off or ConAir are more than five minutes old, does not mark them out as remake fodder.
To paraphrase Dr Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, “your producers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” I for one would prefer to see something new, rather than something old being warmed over. Having said that, I am equally happy to be proved wrong and if WB come up with a magnificent script, a fitting director and a worthy film that stands shoulder to shoulder with the original, great. But I’m not holding my breath.
What do you think? Fed up with unnecessary remakes? Love Lethal Weapon? Don’t? Let us know below.
