Mel Gibson To Star In ‘Taken’ Style Thriller

Some good news on Mel Gibson here.  He’s going the ‘Taken’ route and is going to star in an action thriller. Better yet it’ll be written by ‘The Town’ scribe Peter Craig and directed by Mesrine director Jean-Francois Richet.  Both of those movies were good, they’d be good ways to spend a Sunday night, for sure.  But be forewarned, Mesrine spans two movies.  Here’s the report as carried by Deadline:

The film will begin production in May in New Mexico. Scripted by The Town‘s Peter Craig, it’s about an ex-con who reunites with his estranged wayward 16-year old daughter to protect her from drug dealers who are trying to kill her. It’s being fast tracked by Why Not Productions and Chris Briggs. The film is still coming together, and there is no U.S. distribution yet.

What’s interesting though is that a recent rumor suggested that Mel Gibson would appear in a historical epic alongside Jackie Chan in a Chinese production.  In ‘Dragon Blade’ where Mel would play a Roman General battling foes with Jackie Chan’s rogue character, production would allegedly begin late March.  No word on that since, other than it’s still being cast and that NDAs are in place.  But it does sound like a clash in filming there, so unless it’s a tight squeeze, one of these isn’t true.  And my bet would be Dragon Blade.

But it’s all good because both of these stories are good to hear.