Monday 18 October 2010

Action Franchises you can‘t get Enough of ? Die Hard 5, Lethal Weapon 5 & Expendables 2

Mel Gibson’s Hollywood career has certainly seen better days. The once worshipped actor has been involved in a torrent of accusations and bad publicity due to his outlandish remarks and his struggle with alcohol. And now being dropped from his talent agency, the 54 year old actor might be forced back into a franchise that made him a global superstar, another Lethal Weapon.


The opposite can be said for Bruce Willis who seems to go from strength to strength as an action icon, the now 55 year old actor wants to do a further two Die Hard movies, and not only adding further sequels to a still popular franchise but even announcing his involvement in the inevitable Expendables sequel.



The 411

Lethal Weapon 5

The last several years Mel Gibson has been the subject of endless bad media due to his battle with alcoholism and remarks of racism, homophobia, misogyny and anti-Semitism.
More recently, in July 2010, his argument over the phone with his former ex-girlfriend was recorded and made public which had him questioned on domestic abuse charges and subsequently dropped from his talent agency in Hollywood.
Now Gibson’s relying on current projects, The Beaver which is to be released later this year and Where I Spent My Summer Vacation (2011) to silence his critics and refocus on reinstating his Hollywood career.

If current projects fail to relight interest in the actor he might be looking at a return to a franchise that he’s most famous for, Lethal Weapon.
Lethal Weapon 5 has been rumoured on and off for years, and was set to go ahead until Mel Gibson declined to reprise the role as Martin Riggs. However WhatsPlaying.com reports a reliable tip off they received that Gibson is back in talks with Joel Silver (producer of the Lethal Weapon franchise) on a possible return. The gossip is also fuelled by the fact that Mel Gibson has been developing Cold Warrior with Shane Black who had pitched a successful idea on Lethal Weapon 5 to Warner Brothers. Could Shane Black have talked Mel round?

Danny Glover who plays Lieutenant Roger Murtaugh in the film series has given no real word on the proposed movie’s status although is said to be up for a further outing.
What’s for sure is that a return to the franchise could help Gibson financially as well as professionally. He was given $35 Million for the fourth Lethal Weapon, so would no doubt get more to return, and with his costly divorce and custody battle it must be a serious consideration.

A gay man myself, and not a particular fan of Gibson’s rants and raves, I have however remained a fan of his work, and weather or not the talented actor does return to the role of Martin Riggs, I hope he gets through his dark days, retains what many admire him for, his acting, and finally learn to silence his own lethal weapon, his mouth.


Die Hard 5

Bruce Willis has confirmed that he would like to do a further two more Die Hard Movies. Willis told MTV he was keen to reprise his role as John McClane. ‘It’s probably going to happen in 2011’ he said. He has also made no secret in many interviews that he would like the next instalment to go on an international scale.

He also told FHM 'I want to do Die Hard 5, then one final Die Hard movie - Die Hard 6 - before finally hanging that white vest up for good‘.
Live Free or Die Hard ( AKA Die Hard 4.0 ) had critics and movie fans rejoicing the fact that the 55 year old actor ‘still had it’, and even saying that it was the best sequel to the original in the Die Hard franchise.

Several rumours had been reported earlier this year about the fifth instalments possible premise, at one point Fox was contemplating a crossover which involved John McClane teaming up with CTU agent Jack Bauer (Keither Sutherland) of the hit program 24, tentatively titled Die Hard 24/7. This idea seems to have fizzled out into nothing however, and with the movie intending to start shooting early next year, maybe fan favourite Samuel L. Jackson might make a reappearance? What is for certain is it looks like we haven’t seen the end of our favourite lovable cop McClane, ‘Yippee-ki-yay’!


Expendables 2

As well as the announcement of a further Die Hard movie, Willis has also announced involvement with an Expendables sequel.

Willis made a brief cameo as Mr Church in Sly Stallone’s Expendables, one of this summers box office smash hit movies, and although has received mixed reviews which sway more to the negative side, one thing that many critics and action fans agreed on is that it was a huge guilty pleasure.

Willis whose cameo scene was shared with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stallone himself, has indicated that he will play a much bigger role in the sequel. He had this to say to comminsoon.net:

“I talked to Sly and he's going for all the marbles this time, and he's going to get everybody in this time,”. He continued: “Even Stone Cold Steve Austin who took two bullets in the last film, he's coming back, too. Hopefully, they'll start shooting it while we're young enough to survive.”

Stallone is set to bring many of the big players back including Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke and of course Bruce Willis. And it is now heavily rumoured that Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would have finished his time in office, will have more of a role too if Sly can get him.

Regardless of a non-existent storyline in Expendables, its already proven to be a financial success. Hopefully the sequel will follow more of a story as well as the explosive action that didn’t fall short in its predecessor.

Are you looking forward to any of these sequels? What are your opinions of Mel Gibson and the possibility of him returning to the Lethal Weapon Franchise? Do you think Bruce Willis can pull off a further two Die Hard Movies? Leave your comments below!

20 comments:

Unknown said...

I'd look forward to infinite number of Die Hard sequels, but I'm not sure about Lethal Weapon though. The idea of Die Hard 24/7 sounds fantastic!

Unknown said...

I hope Mel gets through his troubles and returns to form, not Lethal Weapon form, though. I was bored after 2 with the franchise. I love the Die Hards, I watched them all with my dad, he was huge into them and a big fan of Sam L. Now that he's gone, I just can't drum up enthusiasm for more McClane action. I would love to see another Expendables and a sequel to Willis' latest, Red.

jervaise brooke hamster said...
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levian said...

expendables 2! that i definitely can't wait to see! first impressed me a lot, sorta out of my expectancy. i would have thought just another typical guy macho action movie, but it was definitely much more than that!

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

"Live Free or Die Hard" was a quite good sequel actually, but I'm not entirely sure another one is needed.

"Lethal Weapon" is a dead franchise for me.

As for "The Expendables" sequel... well I thought the original was mediocre at best, so I'm definitely not interested i watching a sequel.

Great post as usual ;)

Jaccstev said...

I like the idea of Bruce Willis playing the villain for the next Expendables. Actually, it would make more sense to the storyline if his character, Mr. Church to become the main villain for the sequel. Mr. Church was the one who gave the Expendables the job to take down the dictator. Maybe in the sequel, Mr. Church betrayed Barney Ross over something in the storyline.

However, since I've just finished watching "RED" and Willis with all his old buddies were pretty great and badass, I would love to watch a sequel for this one.

Zezebel said...

Die hard sequel? Just wait and see how the news will be true. I am not a die hard fan but that expendables movie certainly one of the best movie I watch this year.

Unknown said...

Out of all the movies mentioned here, Die Hard sequel sounds most exciting.

DEZMOND said...

I'm not a fan of action movies myself, but out of these big action stars from the 90's I think Bruce Willis would be the most appealing to me. I loved him in MOONLIGHT with Sybil Shepard as a kid, and I can't wait to see him alongside Henry Cavill and Sigourney Weaver in THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY.
And Jason Statham is always a joy to watch as well :)

StellaClaire-Richard said...

I like action movies.
I didn't watch Expandables yet. They said this movie is great. Looking forward to watch it.. :)

Dempsey Sanders said...

@J-SON
I agree, Lethal Weapon, although enjoyed the 4th outing, I'm not really sure where they go from there other than Martin Riggs kid may have growed up and in trouble, or Chris Rock having more involvement


@Melissa Bradley
Yep, one thing I hope for sure is Mel gets past all this, he is a superb actor

@Levian
Its refreshing finding people that enjoyed the movie, so did I, but not because it was a work of art, but more of a guilty pleasure

@Nebular
Can't disagree with anything you said, although for me, while Bruce Willis continues to age well and still pull off the role I would love to see at least one more.

@Jaccstev
Yes definately, Brucey plays a great villain, have you ever seen the Jackel with him and Richard Gere? He was a superb villain in that.

@Zezebel
Who was your favourite action star in the Expendables. I think Jason Statham actually put Sly Stallone to shame.
@Minoccio

@Dezmond
Oh I loved Moonlight. For me Bruce Willis is just ageless.

@Stella-Claire
Would be interested to know what you think of Expendables once you have seen it my darling

Thanks for all your comments! Judging from comments so far, Die Hard 5 seems to be more favourable. Interesting!

Anonymous said...

Die Hard 24/7 sounds so crazy it might just work!
I can't believe they'd shy away from something with so much potential!
No, actually, I can because the industry is run by a bunch of knuckleheads!

The Expendables delivered on the action, but all else could definitely have been turned up a notch or two. And no, don't bring back Steve Austin's dead character!
If they do I'll absolutely refuse to watch.

And Gibson? I'd actually be forgiving if he was willing to admit that get help rather than fail to admit he has some problems.
Loved his work on Apocalypto, but I don't want to actually see his face in any movie anytime soon.

Dark Blue Jeans said...

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