2016 has been a year for a lot of interesting happenings, and one of them is the resurrection of Mel Gibson, both as a director and as an actor. With this summer's Blood Father bringing him back into the land of the latter, it looks like his return to the world of directing won't hamper Gibson's chances of kicking more ass in the future. Even better, it looks like Mel Gibson's next mission will be taking his brawn to the city of lights!
The Hollywood Reporter has gotten wind of a new project entitled Every Other Weekend, which would star Mel Gibson as a CIA agent whose son and grandson are on vacation in Paris, only to be embroiled in an adventurous spy caper. The twist is, Gibson's son has his grandson believing that he too is with the CIA, when instead he's merely in IT. Think of it as a reverse True Lies scenario, only between a father and a son, and much less Bill Paxton wetting his pants. The film is looking to start up production before the year's end, so if anything Gibson's potential casting could be fast tracked to confirmation in the coming weeks.
Every Other Weekend actually sounds like the sort of film Mel Gibson would have made in his heyday, with someone like Christian Slater cast as his son and maybe Sean Connery as the grandfather/spy of the family. Should Gibson land his role in the action-adventure, it would serve as fuel to the fire that is the renaissance that he's engaged in through this year in film. More impressively, it would put him into a project that sounds like it'll call upon his classic mixture of both action prowess and comedic timing. In a world where Lethal Weapon is on a lot of people's minds, some old school Gibson can go a long way, especially considering Blood Father proved he still has the action piece of the puzzle locked in.
Mel Gibson has had an admittedly checkered history, but for the most part it seems like he's cleaned up his act and is now beginning to rebuild his career as a Hollywood talent. Between Blood Father and Hacksaw Ridge bringing his career back into active duty, Every Other Weekend feels like the sort of project that could cement his return to the limelight. Of course, the ultimate test of this revival will be if the public at large accepts him back into their welcoming arms. All the better reason for Gibson to bust out an old act for some new thrills.
Every Other Weekend looks to start filming towards the end of 2016, which would imply an eye towards releasing in mid/late 2017.
