So the internet is up in arms with the news that Warner Bros. have hired
Will Beall to write a screenplay that will reboot and relaunch the seminal 80's buddy cop action series
Lethal Weapon 'with a whole new cast' and for a whole new audience, most likely without appearances from Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Ok, that's fine, be angry. But read through
Deadline's story carefully before you decide where you stand. YES - they say WB are planning a 'reboot'. But where does it say anything about rebooting the beloved characters of Murtagh and Riggs? I could be wrong but I'm guessing the word 'remake' would more likely be branded about if they were going in that direction? A reboot of the LW franchise could easily find TWO NEW CHARACTERS carrying on the Lethal Weapon mantle and if it's the LW brand name that helps a genuinely, 'hard R-rated edgy street cop movie' that is being described get off the ground and into theatres, then is that such a bad thing? I'm not saying that's what the pitch is but we desperately need to know more before we get nuts!
WB have been trying to continue the Lethal Weapon franchise ever since the last film opened in 1998. In the past few years, they even hired original scribe Shane Black to write a treatment for a fifth film that would reunite stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover but when Gibson started to have doubts (as he has annually about committing to a fifth), the project was shelved, and shelved indefinitely when Gibson's public image lost all value last year. Former LA cop Beall is something of a hot shot name at WB where his scripted
Tales From The Gangster Squad, a period, Public Enemies style gangster flick is setup. The period thriller about an elite crime fighting squad that fought offer crime boss Mickey Cohen is based on
Paul Liebermans series of articles in the L.A. Times two years ago concerning the off-the-record and questionable L.A.P.D. of the 1940s and their influence from the East Coast Mafia. WB recently set Zomebieland director Ruben Fleischer to direct that film which should shoot this year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q37xJtuQ24w What's your thoughts about a Lethal Weapon reboot? And note - it's reboot and not remake, at this point at least.