Mel Gibson returns to the big screen for his first major role in six years in the gripping thriller Edge of Darkness. The Oscar winning filmmaker and actor was tempted back into a starring role in front of the cameras by the opportunity to work on a contemporary cinematic version of one of his all time favourite mini series, which was originally screened in the 1980s and starred the late Bob Peck.
Gibson loved the BBC drama and when the original series director, Martin Campbell, came to him with the idea of a contemporary cinematic version of the same story he was immediately interested. In Edge of Darkness he plays detective Thomas Craven whose daughter is shot dead by his side as she leaves their house.
At first police believe that the killers were targeting Craven himself and that his daughter was shot by mistake but gradually he discovers that she had a secret life as an activist who had been trying to expose a corporate cover up at the nuclear plant where she worked.
The result is a nail biting, extremely tense thriller that casts Gibson in one of his favourite roles, as a maverick loner who has to fight a corrupt system to find out exactly what happened to his beloved daughter and bring her killers to justice.

MEL GIBSON INTERVIEW:
Q: Are you pleased with Edge of Darkness?
A: Yeah, it works. On face value I think you could just say it looks like ‘oh here we go, another revenge movie’ and stuff but it’s actually rather more than that. It investigates grief, loss, in a good way.
Q: Presumably you had seen the original BBC series?
A: Oh yeah and it really blew my mind. I saw the original series in the 1980s and it really blew my mind,” he says. “I watched it and I was like ‘wow!’ I was left with my mouth hanging open. Bob (Peck) is dead now and he was amazing in that. I think it was the best TV I saw in that decade and it’s a tall order when your task is to make an updated version of it within the time frame of two hours. I mean, even the music in the original series was amazing – music by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen. How cool is that? But I felt good about it because Martin (Campbell) was doing it again and it was the same team sort of having another look at it. I think it holds its own, which is good.
Q: You obviously had to make the story contemporary. Was he corporate conspiracy aspect of the story one of the things that appealed to you?
A: Yeah that sort of thing and you know, who knows? It’s kind of a stab in the dark but hey, you don’t have to stab to far in the dark, before you hit something these days. I mean there’s a lot of stuff going on that’s, I think to anybody with a brain, looks around and says ‘that ain’t right.’  So I don’t know if we’ve hit anything on the head or not, but it’s feasible. And it’s like, it’s illustrated, it’s not sketched out to heavily, but just enough.
Q: You’ve acted in a couple of smaller roles but Edge of Darkness is your first major role for a few years. Was it a conscious decision to step back from acting and concentrate on directing?
A: I guess seven or eight years back there was just this kind of decision that I felt like I was getting stale in the arena that I occupied, so I thought I’d just step out of it for awhile and just change hats and then go for some other, for different kinds of things. And I don’t know, I just felt like it was time to come back, because if you spend that long away, I mean you’re going to change - time and maturity and oxidization and all of the little things take a hold of you, you’ll come back and you’ll make different decisions, than what you had seven or eight years earlier.  And God willing if I go on and do the same, just keep moving, because I think once you start to stand still in an area, it’s maybe a little dangerous, so you almost have to impose a penalty on yourself and walk away for a little while, because you can walk into that groove where you just think ‘well, keep going..’ it doesn’t mean anything after awhile, except a pay check, which is not, doesn’t really justify or, it’s not really what you’re after.
Q: OK, so what are you after when you have been in the business for so long?
A: What you’re after is really kind of some fulfilment in what you do and have other people relate to it, and if it starts to feel stale, you’ve got to re-examine it I think.  And I really like the experience of stepping away from that and getting behind the camera.  It’s great, that’s the best.  And I’ll do that again soon too, I’ll just break it up a little.
Q: What was it like coming back into a big role like this?
A: Well, it just seemed pretty matter-of-fact - you’re much more relaxed. It’s pretty much the same as I remembered it, as far as just the mechanics of it going, it’s kind of like riding a bicycle, except that you bring more time, more experience, and a fresh voice to the party, that’s it.  It was fun to work on it because it was a deceptive little production in that it was a lot of bits that kind of added up, but individually, they didn’t seem to amount to anything on their own, which was, I think I’m able to see, especially having been in the directors chair myself for awhile…
Q: Obvious question but, like you said, you’ve been directing your own films, so how was it go back and have somebody direct you?
A: Well I think the main thing you have is empathy for the director. It’s like you look at the guy and you go ‘poor bastard’ (laughs) because they run you ragged. And of course your job there is to help him achieve what his vision is, so you’re there but the workload seems less, and indeed it is, because you’re a component in the process of storytelling whereas with the other gig, you’ve got to be on 24/7.
Q: Was it a hard part physically? Because there are some fight scenes and they look very authentic…
A: You know, I love the way that fight looks, it’s messy looking…
Q: At one point you look winded, it’s very realistic…
A: (laughs) Dude, I was winded! I’m like trying to catch my breath and hey it’s tough, that kid was strong, and he’s half my age, so it’s like, and he had to let me win (laughs). So it was like one of those things like where, ‘whew, he’s a handful!’  So you don’t bounce off, you don’t bounce back as quick as normal, I mean I had a couple of sore days after that one.  But yeah, you’re knocked around, but it’s fun, I like making the image, it’s worth it for that.  As long as you’ve got a good bone man afterwards that can reset you, because you need a chiropractor and somebody to like put your neck back because you get knocked around.  And you don’t bounce back as fast.  It’s like I used to do this stuff off the side, 25 years ago, no problem, now it’s like, ‘owww!  I think I’ll just crawl under the couch!’ (laughs)
Q: Your character in Edge of Darkness is driven by terrible grief because he’s a father who loses his daughter in the most violent way. You’re a father yourself, so presumably you could relate to that?
A:  Of course, yeah. I’ve got grandchildren and you’re looking at that, I’m looking at my daughter and my sons kind of step into that place where I’ve been, as responsible adults, and man, they’ve turned out OK and I’m going to have to shuffle off one of these days so this is what I’ve done to hand it on to them. It’s the idea of natural progression and most of us want to hand on those good things to our children, our experiences, to them. And to have that taken away, like the guy in this story does, to lose that natural thing like that, would have to change your perspective on the world and your whole existence. So that’s what I found very interesting about the script.  And that the core of it is kind of pretty emotional, so that it doesn’t turn into a Charlie Bronson revenge movie, but it actually means something.
Edge of Darkness is released in Cinemas from January 29th 2010