Mel Gibson says 'Lethal Weapon 5' script is 'better than all of the others'

Gibson said the fifth film would feature older versions of the franchise's central characters, with one retired and the other working a desk job.

"The characters are quite different. They're older. One's retired. The other one's on a desk job. He's putting on too much weight, and it's low-tech," Gibson said, Deadline reported.

He explained that unlike the earlier films, the new installment would not rely heavily on large-scale explosions and elaborate action sequences, but would still retain the energy of an action movie.

"It doesn't get into the big explosions and all this sort of stuff. But it still has the energy and, I think, drive of a big action film," he said, Deadline reported.

Gibson added that the film would only make minimal references to the previous installments and would largely work as a standalone story.

"It's a story all on its own," he said.

Describing the action, Gibson said the movie would include a foot chase designed to feel like a car chase, while keeping the action simpler and placing greater emphasis on the characters, Deadline reported.

"It's a foot chase, right? But it's kind of filmed like a car chase. So it still has all the elements of what was in the other films, but not nearly so complicated. But it deals more about the people in it," he said.

Gibson also confirmed that he would "absolutely" want to direct the film, a responsibility he said the franchise's original director, Richard Donner, had wanted him to take on.

"Donner, God rest his soul, he said to me in this deep voice, he said, 'Hey kid, if I drop off the perch, you'll take this over, won't you?' I said, 'Shut up! You're not going anywhere.' And of course he did," Gibson recalled.

He said that after Donner's death, others reminded him of the director's wishes and encouraged him to take over the project.

"And, you know, when he passed away, I didn't say anything. But apparently he had told other people that too, so they all came to me and said, 'You direct it.' I said, 'Yeah, okay,'" Gibson said.

Gibson revealed that Donner had been working on the fifth film's script before his death and that he later worked with writer Richard Wenk to complete it, Deadline reported.

"Donner, when he was 90 years old, was working on the fifth, and of course he passed away in the middle. So I got together with the writer, and we completed it thinking, 'What would Donner do?' That's what we were thinking in the room," Gibson said.

The actor expressed strong confidence in the completed screenplay, saying, "I think that the fifth script is better than all of the others."

However, Gibson said the project has remained stalled because of studio-related complications.

"Richard Wenk and I finished the script, and we were going to go into production, but it just never got the wheels under it," he said.

Gibson said the project became caught up in what he described as "industrial film hell," adding that changes involving Warner Bros. may potentially give the film a new opportunity.

"I think Warner's got into some quicksand at that time... so it got buried somewhere, and now I think this David Ellison guy over at Paramount has absorbed or will absorb Warners, or it looks like he will. And maybe, maybe they'll take the chains off that one, and you might see that in another year or so," he said.

'Lethal Weapon', released in 1987, was directed by Richard Donner and written by Shane Black. The action thriller starred Gibson as Martin Riggs and Danny Glover as Roger Murtaugh.

The success of the film led to three sequels, 'Lethal Weapon 2' in 1989, 'Lethal Weapon 3' in 1992 and 'Lethal Weapon 4' in 1998.

The franchise was later adapted into a television series starring Clayne Crawford as Martin Riggs and Damon Wayans as Roger Murtaugh. The series premiered on Fox in 2016 and ran for three seasons, Deadline reported. (ANI)