Ridley Scott Almost Directed Lethal Weapon... Seriously

Sometimes you hear stories of alternate films that could have been, and the very suggestion is enough for you to wail at the fates for choosing the wrong outcome. Imagine if Vincent Ward's bonkers Alien 3 had been made? Or Steven Spileberg's Old Boy?

Then there are other possibilities that are just too strange to even comprehend: like the brand new revelation that Ridley Scott was initially lined up by Joel Silver to make Lethal Weapon.

In conversation with Devin Faraci at Birth Movies Death, Silver revealed that back in 1985 he was shopping Shane Black's script around with not much success. To Live And Die In LA had just failed at the box office and studios were balking at the idea of making actioners: apparently the audience just wasn't there for them.

The only bite Silver could get was at Warner Bros, where Mark Canton saw potential in the script. The only thing he didn't like (or his studio anyway) was the suggested director. In Silver's words: "They didn't like him because of Blade Runner," which had been seen as a failure (an unthinkable revelation now). Eventually Richard Donner got the job, after Leonard Nimoy also joined Scott in the house of ridiculous suggestions.

Imagine for a minute what Scott's Lethal Weapon would have been like... It's hard to even imagine it, particularly as he wasn't exactly famed for his comedic work at that point. A Faraci notes, Tony Scott would have been a far more seamless pick, but Silver definitely had Ridley lined up.

For once it looks like the studio execs might just have got it right...