Give Mel Gibson some credit: He may be nuttier than
a fruitcake, but at least he still has his dignity. Director Richard Donner confirmed
to the Los Angeles Times today that the Braveheart Oscar winner and owner of Malibu has
opted against starring in a proposed fifth chapter of Lethal Weapon -- a move
that signals, as Donner puts it, that the project is now "dead in the
water."
Gibson's decision bucks the recent trend,
established by fellow aging action stars Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford,
of going back to the well and resurrecting long-dormant franchises like Rambo and
Indiana Jones in the hopes of staying relevant. Lethal Weapon 5 had been
gathering steam of late thanks to the efforts of writer/director Shane Black, who penned the first Lethal Weapon and had hoped to write and direct the proposed re-boot.