Welcome back Mel Gibson: Edge of Darkness

Mel Gibson hasn’t had the best press recently. Shall we tell you how much we care about what Gibson gets up to in his private life? Not one jot. The man’s an actor; no one elected him president or pope. As far as The Guide is concerned, what he does off screen is his own damn business. What we do care about passionately is what he does on screen. And on screen, Mel never disappoints. He’s hands down one of our all-time favourite movie stars.

Since he literally blasted onto the scene in Mad Max, Gibson has given us one magnetic performance after enough. His portrayal of Martin ‘is he really crazy or not?’ Riggs in Lethal Weapon (the first one, before they turned the series into The Cosby Show) remains a work of genius. We certainly love watching Gibson ‘on the edge’ like that. Whether it’s turning the tables on his son’s kidnappers in Ron Howard’s Ransom or taking on the overwhelming might of the English army in his directorial debut Braveheart, Gibson excels in powerful, ‘against the odds’ roles.

Of late, he’s tended to add some welcome darkness into the mix too. Conspiracy Theory showed Gibson unafraid to challenge his audience by straying from the mainstream a little and he pushed this even further with the – hugely under-appreciated – Payback in 1999, a movie so dark that many people just didn’t get it.

Perhaps because of all the publicity around his private life, Gibson hasn’t been acting much of late. The last time we got to see him in a leading role was way back in 2002 as the Reverand Graham Hess in Signs.

And so we were absolutely delighted to chance upon his latest, due out next year: Edge of Darkness. It looks from the poster and trailer below that we’re in for a treat: Mel Gibson at his dark, unhinged best: a man determined to uncover the truth surrounding his daughter’s murder and extract justice for it, with absolutely nothing to lose in the process.

We can’t wait. Welcome back Mel.