Are we due for another Mel Gibson meltdown? Last time he decided enough time has passed for him to be allowed to move back into the public eye (admittedly the world didn’t end when he appeared in Expendables 3), he had another very public scandal that meant he had to go back into hiding again. He’ll be hoping that doesn’t happen again.
Now he’s in talks to direct his first film since Apocalypto eight years ago, Hacksaw Ridge, with Andrew Garfield in talks to star, according to Deadline.
The movie based on the true story of Desmond T. Doss, who despite being a conscientious objector during World War II he managed to win the Congressional Medal of Honor (the first conscientious objector to do so). Doss refused to kill enemy soldiers but still served as a Army medic during the Battle of Okinowa.
In 1945 President Harry S. Truman gave him the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1945 for saving so many lives. Hacksaw Ridge refers to the location of a brutal two-week stretch of the Battle of Okinawa, where American troops fought Japanese soldiers on rocky cliffs.
The fact Deadline suggest that negotiations with Gibson are “moving forward delicately and slowly”, suggests there are plenty of issues to iron out, not least of which will be the backers seeking assurances that their won’t be another implosion that could affect the film.