For a couple of years after his DUI incident, Mel Gibson pretty much disappeared from the public eye completely, but now he seems to be back with a vengeance, with new projects being announced seemingly every couple of weeks. His first starring role since 2002’s Signs, in Edge Of Darkness, is released tomorrow, and now comes news that he’s in talks to play the lead in the spy thriller, Cold Warrior.
Variety reports that the film would reunite him with Shane Black, the writer of Lethal Weapon, who’s on directing duties for the film about a retired Cold War spy. Mel would play the older agent, who has to come out of retirement and gets teamed with a younger spy from the new school of espionage, in order to deal with a terrorism threat orchestrated by Russia. Surprisingly though, Black didn’t write the script. That came from Chuck Mondry, while Black is purely behind the camera again, for the first time since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
It’s fairly interesting though that the one thing common to all of the projects that Mel is getting involved with, is that they’re independently financed. Apparently the Hollywood studios are still reluctant to work with him following his 2006 arrest, although as money always talks in Tinsel Town, I’m sure they’ll get over it if the likes of Edge Of Darkness and Beaver start to make cash.