Not counting his cameo in the gloriously glorious Paparazzi, it’s been five years since Mel Gibson appeared onscreen. Five years. (Had I counted Paparazzi, it would’ve been four. Somehow, that wasn’t impressive enough.) And if you were wondering what it would take to get the fine actor back in front of the camera, here’s your answer: Martin Campbell and William Monahan.
Gibson will star in the big screen adaptation of Edge of Darkness, a 1985 BBC series about a by-the-book police officer who gets tangled in a web of corruption whilst investigating the death of his activist daughter. Campbell helmed the original, which ran a healthy 317 minutes. I imagine that Monahan will pare the narrative down just a little (while leaving a page or two open for a hideously incongruous torture sequence).
Producer Graham King is self-financing Edge of Darkness, which is currently scheduled to begin shooting in Boston this August. It’ll be fascinating to see how the media treats Gibson’s return to the spotlight; though he’s been brutally honest in the past (save for his anti-Semitism; he had to get hammered for those delightful thoughts to come spilling out), I imagine that we’ll see a much humbler Mel when it comes time to do press for this movie. Not that any of that really matters. I just want to see the guy act again. And stop hating Jews. That’d be good, too.