Mel Gibson To Re-Team With Shane Black

Mel Gibson this Friday will try to knock Avatar from atop the box office in the Martin Campbell-directed Edge of Darkness. Until that pic, he didn’t go in front of the camera for more than 7 years. Now, he’s moving forward to line up projects, but looking back to work with the writer who solidified his place as an action star. Gibson is in discussions to re-team with Lethal Weapon screenwriter Shane Black in the thriller Cold Warrior which is still in its formative stages. I know Mel and Shane have wanted to make a film together since Black was in the mix to direct Lethal Weapon 5, which fell apart

The pic is getting indie financed and would be distributed by Universal. Black will direct a thriller scripted by Chuck Mondry and Anthony Bargarozzi, and Gibson is circling the role of a Cold War-era spy who helps a younger agent track a terrorist. It will be the first film Black directs since he made his directorial debut on the little seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. After Edge of Darkness, Mel wrapped the Jodie Foster-directed The Beaver and is filming the Adrian Grunberg-directed Icon production How I Spent My Summer Vacation, a film Gibson wrote and stars as a career criminal in a tough Mexican prison.