THE FILM

VARIETY 28/4/08
Mel Gibson has committed to star in "Edge of Darkness," marking his first starring role in a feature film since he headlined "Signs" and "We Were Soldiers" in 2002.
Martin Campbell will direct the feature adaptation of the six-hour 1985 BBC miniseries, which Campbell also helmed.
William Monahan wrote the script, and Graham King is producing through his GK Films banner. Michael Wearing, who produced the original, will also produce, and the BBC will be involved in a producing capacity.
Campbell, who last directed "Casino Royale," developed the project and brought it to King a year ago. He enlisted Monahan for a page one rewrite; the scribe worked with King on "The Departed." King is self-financing the project and is committed to an August production start in Boston. It is unclear whether he will fully finance through production or enlist a studio.
Gibson will play a straitlaced police investigator whose activist daughter is killed. He plunges into the case and uncovers systemic corruption that led to his daughter's death.
Gibson had long been a fan of the mini and was receptive when King and Campbell approached him several months ago.
Before "Signs" and "We Were Soldiers," Gibson starred in 2000's "What Women Want" and "The Patriot." Subsequently, he concentrated on directing, with "The Passion of the Christ" in 2004 and "Apocalypto" in 2006.
While Gibson has stayed under the radar after controversy sparked in 2006, he has continued to be offered acting vehicles, and he came close to accepting on several occasions, including "Under and Alone," a fact-based drama still in development at Warner Bros.
At a time when supposedly proven stars aren't translating to opening weekends, films that Gibson starred in and directed have grossed north of $5 billion worldwide.
King and Monahan won Oscars for "The Departed," and the producer recently made a first-look deal with the writer, who has taken residence in GK headquarters. Among the projects on which Monahan and King are collaborating is the Paramount-based true story of Jim Keene, who traded a prison sentence to go undercover at a maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane. King will produce that film with Alexandra Milchan, based on an upcoming Playboy magazine article by Keene and writer Hillel Levin.

MARTIN CAMPBELL

THE DIRECTOR

MARTIN CAMPBELL first gained world-wide attention for his British TV fare, including "Reilly: Ace of Spies" (1984), starring a dashing Sam Neill, and the much-touted series "Edge of Darkness" (1986), an elaborately conceived thriller which depicted murder and high-ranking corruption.
Born in New Zealand, Campbell moved to England in 1966 and trained as a cameraman before making his directing debut with the erotic thriller "The Sex Thief" (1974). After the equally naughty "Her Family Jewels" (1975), Campbell made his producing debut with "Black Joy" (1977) and "Scum" (1979).
For British TV, Campbell helmed the police series "Bergerac" (1982), "Reilly: Ace of Spies", the premiere episode of the popular "Edge of Darkness" and "Charlie" (1987).
Arguably, it was the critical and popular success of "Edge of Darkness" which paved the way for Campbell's cross-over to American thrillers like "Criminal Law" (1988), starring Kevin Bacon and Gary Oldman, and "Defenseless" (1991), with Barbara Hershey and Sam Shepard. These two modest suspense films rested heavily on their actors, in sharp contrast to Campbell's 1994 effort "No Escape". A futuristic Ray Liotta vehicle, produced by Gale Anne Hurd, it was a departure into the action adventure genre for Campbell.
With his background in action, he was chosen to direct "GoldenEye" (1995), the 17th James Bond film, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as 007. Campbell then impressed audiences with the stylish and lavishly filmed derring-do of "The Mask of Zorro" (1998), which also subtly sent-up the conventions of the swashbuckling hero, at last made a marquee name out of star Antonio Banderas in America and provided the breakthrough role for Catherine Zeta-Jones--he would return seven years later for the entertaining sequel "The Legend of Zorro" (2005) after his two follow-ups, the lackluster thriller "Vertical Limit" (2000) and the well-intentioned international political melodrama "Beyond Borders" (2003) starring Angelina Jolie failed to drum up much business at the box office.
After the second "Zorro" film he returned to another familiar property to helm "Casino Royale" (lensed 2006), the 21st James Bond film and the first to feature Daniel Craig as the superspy in a plotline that promised to adhere more closely to Ian Fleming's original novel than other 007 efforts.
Campbell's talents for TV have not been overlooked in the States: he has directed the detective thriller "Cast a Deadly Spell" (HBO, 1991), two 1993 episodes of the NBC police drama "Homicide: Life on the Street" and, after his big-screen successes, the pilot of the short-lived crime drama "10-8: Officers on Duty" (2003).