Somewhere in Hollywood, someone has the words “Joe Pesci cameo” written on a whiteboard, accompanied by a feeling of anxious expectation, because Deadline reports Fox has ordered a pilot for a TV series based on the blockbuster buddy-cop franchise Lethal Weapon. Matt Miller, the former Chuck producer who recently created the Ioan Gruffudd-starring supernatural drama Forever for ABC, is putting the show together, a task which hopefully involves Miller plugging items like “toilet bomb” and “ironically exploding buildings” into an Excel budget spreadsheet.
“Wait,” you’re probably thinking, “Didn’t they already announce a Lethal Weapon show?” But no, you’ve confused Mel Gibson and Danny Glover’s primer on the benefits of partnership and diplomatic immunity with Rush Hour, which is being remade, or possibly Training Day, natch. (If you’re confusing Lethal Weapon with the planned remake of Uncle Buck, please consult a physician.) You can be forgiven for the mistake, though, since it now appears every movie ever made about two cops gritting their teeth and working together is going to get turned into a mid-budget riff on its own source material within the next five years.
Anyway, we could go into a long, drawn-out discussion of why TV executives are turning more and more frequently to established film franchises for their ideas, or a scolding screed about Hollywood’s ever-present tendency to autocannibalize. Or we could just post the video of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s Lethal Weapon 5, which is probably the only Lethal Weapon adaptation TV actually needs, and let you get on with your Friday.
Okay, yeah, that’s what we thought.