According to Variety, Robert De Niro and Mel Gibson did not get along during the first few days on the set of Edge of Darkness, a gritty cop drama.

Following a shouting match, De Niro quit the movie and Ray Winstone (the wonderful and evil Mr. French from The Departed) was hired to replace him.

While reading that article I asked myself, “Self, who would win if Gibson and De Niro came to fists?”

Although De Niro is a tough New York street kid, I have to go with Mel. Mainly because Gibson is younger (52 vs 64) and in better shape, and because I’m sure after you choreograph so many martial arts scenes, some of those moves have to stick with you.

And then, there’s the nutty factor. Just as his “Lethal Weapon” character, Martin Riggs, Gibson comes across as being a few French fries short of a Happy Meal, if you know what I mean.

Source: Gulf Coasting Live

It’s not every day that a major Hollywood production is filmed on the North Shore.

But with Matthew McConaughey, Michael Douglas and Mel Gibson in our midst this summer, it becomes clear those days are becoming more common.

As Edge of Darkness, starring Mel Gibson continues shooting this week in Merrimac on River Road, the possibility of more star sightings and movie crews in local communities continues to build.

But how does a Mel Gibson decide that the Rocks Village bridge in Merrimac would be the perfect setting for his film?

It starts with a call to the Mass. Film Office.

With much of the film being shot in Northampton, the company was looking for a site that resembles the Connecticut River — which the Merrimack does.

Nick Paleologos, the executive director of the Mass. Film Office, said he’s proud that Hollywood isn’t just coming to the state and just staying in Boston.

“It isn’t just Boston, it’s everywhere, and that’s the most gratifying part of this,” he said, adding that the Edge of Darkness has also filmed in Deerfield, Taunton and Beverly, among other places. “It’s everywhere, and the more, the merrier.”

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Leaf-peepers looking for a bird’s-eye view of peak foliage can forget about Mount Sugarloaf State Park, at least on Oct. 8, 9 and 10.

Mel Gibson’s got dibs.

The film Edge of Darkness, which stars Gibson, will be filming on the mountain during that time, according to Wendy E. Fox, the press secretary for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
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The road to the summit and all trails within the park will be closed to the public on those days.

In addition, Fox said, the park will be closed until noon this Saturday and the following Saturdays of Sept. 20, 27 and Oct. 4 as crews prepare for filming. Workers have already begun erecting a building in the park that will be used in some scenes.

Based on a British television series of the same name, Edge of Darkness tells the story of a Boston police officer, played by Gibson, who descends into a world of corporate intrigue and government coverups after witnessing the murder of his daughter.

Filming has already begun in Boston, and some scenes will be shot in Northampton.

Filmmakers presumably want to take advantage of the October foliage by filming on Mount Sugarloaf, which overlooks the Connecticut River. The mountain also has its own American Indian significance. Legend has it that Sugarloaf is the carcass of a giant, man-eating beaver. In addition, it reportedly served as a camp for Metacomet, also known as King Philip, who led an Indian uprising against the colonists in the late 1600s.

Source: Mass Live

Mel on set at Cape Hedge Beach in Rockport and more. Happy viewing!

~ On Set - 9/01/08
~ On Set - 9/18/08 Cape Hedge Beach

Those eager to walk their dogs or jog along the popples of Cape Hedge Beach were turned away as filming of the Mel Gibson drama, Edge of Darkness, began in Rockport yesterday morning, a week ahead of the production’s scheduled arrival in town.

Many of those asked not to go on the beach while cameras were rolling responded with curiosity and intrigue rather than frustration and anger.

The crew arrived on scene in Rockport at 5:30 a.m. yesterday, and local Hollywood enthusiast and amateur photographer Michael P. Ferrante of Sandy Bay Terrace wasn’t far behind them.

“I got close enough to see what was going on, but not too close, security made sure of that,” Ferrante said. “I did get a look at Mel Gibson. It’s kind of my thing, I like to be around the excitement of Hollywood filming, it makes my adrenaline go.”

Sea View Street was closed to traffic for much of yesterday and access to Cape Hedge Beach via the end of South Street was extremely limited.

The movie, an adaptation of the 1985 British television mini-series of the same name, is Gibson’s first movie since 2002 when he starred in Signs and has been billed as his comeback. Gibson stars as a Boston police detective who investigates his daughter’s death, uncovering corruption that led to her murder. The film is being directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale).

Nancy Lewis of South Street agreed to allow the movie to film her small Victorian-era home yesterday afternoon after being contacted by the production earlier this summer.

Lewis was happy the crew arrived a week early because it ensured she would be at home during the filming. She brought her dog, Roscoe, to Cape Hedge Beach just before noon yesterday to check on the crew’s progress ahead of her home’s big screen moment.

Lewis said the crew has been “very professional and has followed through on everything they promised they would.”

According to Town Administrator Michael Racicot, the scene on Cape Hedge Beach was said to feature Gibson’s character returning to the beach, his daughter’s favorite childhood place, to scatter her ashes into the sea.

As part of the location agreement, the production company, which was not identified, agreed to donate $2,000 toward Rockport’s yet-to-be-constructed animal shelter.

The movie, which began filming in Boston in August, was also slated to star Robert DeNiro, but DeNiro left the movie days after shooting began, citing creative differences.

British actor Ray Winstone has since stepped in to replace DeNiro.

Edge of Darkness is the latest in a string of movies that have been filmed in the state in recent months. Some of that spike is due to the state’s new tax credit program.

Under the new law, studios, major producers and filmmakers who either shoot at least half of their movie or spend at least half their production budget in the state are eligible for a tax credit equal to 25 percent of their total spending in Massachusetts, inclusive of any salaries over $1 million.

Seventeen major productions have shot in Massachusetts in less than three years.

Prior to this year, it had been five years since Rockport’s rugged coastline or quaint downtown shops had served as a backdrop for a major Hollywood production.

Before the Walt Disney production The Proposal, filmed on Bearskin Neck in April, the last film scenes shot in Rockport had been for 2003’s “Stuck on You,” starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear.

According to the film’s publicist, all shooting in Rockport was completed yesterday. Originally, the town was prepared to give them the beach for two days on Sept. 25 and 26.

Source: Gloucester Times

A big thanks to Betsy of AguileraBuff.com for exclusive pictures of Mel on set! Happy viewing!

~ On Set - 9/11/08

It has been more than a week since Robert De Niro up and left the set of Edge of Darkness, the made-in-Boston Mel Gibson thriller, and the intrigue is still swirling about the superstar’s departure.

Although the official word on De Niro’s exit - after just one day of shooting - was the old Hollywood saw “creative differences,” insiders have been spinning a series of scenarios to explain the superstar’s abrupt departure.

One spywitness tells us that the two-time Academy Award winner left Boston after a disagreement with Martin Campbell over how many takes the director had De Niro do out at the Gannon Golf Course in Lynn last week.

According to that source, Campbell had Bobby D. repeatedly shoot and re-shoot a scene where his character tries to hit a ball out of a sand trap. At the end of the day, the actor reportedly approached the director to discuss the long day, and the discussion degenerated into a shouting match that culminated with De Niro hitting the road.

Yet another snitch reports that De Niro was asked to leave after he arrived on the set “unprepared.”

“That was the difference - they wanted him to know his lines and he didn’t,” said that source.

But others close to the matter scoff at that scenario, saying De Niro certainly would have been given more than just one day to rectify any preparedness problems, given his importance to the film.

“That dog don’t hunt,” said the actor’s spokesman Stan Rosenfield.

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So word is, Robert De Niro walked from Edge of Darkness because Mel Gibson refused to apologize - to him personally- for the unsavory comments he made about Jews back in 2006. De Niro is half-Jew and apparently requested Mel say “Sorry” before they begun working together. Gibson refused to apologize. De Niro caught the first plane home.

Ray Winstone will have been advised ‘not to ask for an apology from Gibson’ - and why would he? He ain’t Jewish - before taking over De Niro’s part on the movie, that’s for sure. They’ve already lost too much time after De Niro walked from the picture a few days into principal photography.

According to Variety, the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull co-star is negotiating to play an operative sent to clean up evidence in the murder of a woman. Gibson plays her detective father, who wants answers after his daughter is shot on his doorstep.

The Martin Campbell-directed pic has been shooting since August 18, but has been shooting around the part-formerly-occupied-by-De-Niro.

Source: Moviehole

Mel Gibson’s tentative return to the Hollywood fold hit choppy waters yesterday when it emerged that Robert De Niro had walked-off the set of his comeback film, Edge of Darkness.

Amid rumours of tension between the two actors, the film industry newspaper Variety revealed that De Niro had abruptly flown home less than a week after arriving on the set of the thriller in Boston.

“Sometimes things don’t work out – it’s called ‘creative differences’,” said a spokesman for De Niro, who had been cast in the role of a CIA crime-scene operative, Darius Jedburgh.

The news will come as a blow to Gibson, who, despite winning two Oscars, has struggled to find acting work since making a series of anti-Semitic comments to a police officer during an arrest in 2006 for drink-driving. A leaked report revealed that Gibson told the police officer James Mee, who is Jewish, that “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world”.

In Hollywood, such words represent career suicide. Gibson issued a public apology for his “sickening comments”, claiming they had been “blurted out during a moment of insanity”, but was unable to secure further roles for almost two years. Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ also sparked a widespread debate over the use of allegedly anti-Semitic imagery in its portrayal of the Crucifixion.

Following his arrest, Gibson, who is known for his volatile behavior on set, agreed to enter an alcohol recovery course. When the drink-drive case came to court he was fined $1,300 (£750) and given three years’ probation.

Gibson was set to resume his acting career in Edge of Darkness where he was cast as Thomas Craven, the father of a young woman who had been working in Boston Police’s homicide department but was herself killed.

The film, based on a BBC mini-series of the same name, is directed by Casino Royale’s Martin Campbell and produced by the British film mogul Graham King. It is scheduled to be released next year, and also stars Danny Huston, Shawn Roberts and Bojana Novakovic.

Though the Hollywood rumour-mill was working overtime yesterday, reports of what prompted the dispute vary. It was by no means certain if De Niro’s “creative differences” were with Gibson, another co-star, or with a member of the production team. But conspiracy theorists have been quick to point the finger at Gibson, thought by many to still hold anti-Semitic beliefs. Some claimed that De Niro has Jewish ancestors.

The film-makers are now attempting to “shoot around” De Niro’s character until they can find a replacement, although any delay to the production schedule will be both costly and embarrassing.

Campbell had already been required to conduct widespread groundwork’s to a bunker on the 15th hole of Gannon Golf Club in Lynn, near Boston, to accommodate De Niro in one scene.

According to the Boston Herald, the director ordered massive excavation after he was unable to fit De Niro, the bunker, and the city’s skyline into a single shot.

The original Edge of Darkness was a BBC mini-series which ran for six episodes in the mid 1980s and was set in London. It was also directed by Campbell, with Bob Peck in the Gibson role.

In the film, Gibson’s character uncovers the secret life of his activist daughter while investigating her death. He also stumbles across evidence of a corporate cover-up and government collusion. The original BBC version was heralded as a harsh critique of Britain’s 1980s nuclear policy under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Source: The Independent

He was on the set of Mel Gibson’s comeback film for less than a week, but already Robert De Niro has gone.

The actor walked off the Boston set of Edge of Darkness amid rumours of a fallout between the two actors.

The film industry newspaper Variety revealed that De Niro had flown home abruptly.

‘Sometimes things don’t work out - it’s called creative differences,’ said De Niro’s spokesman.

It was not clear if these differences were with Gibson, another actor, or the production team.

The veteran actor had been cast in the role of CIA crime-scene operative Darius Jedburgh alongside Gibson as Thomas Craven, the father of a murdered young woman who had been working in Boston Police’s homicide department.

The movie is seen as Gibson’s comeback movie after the double Oscar winner made a series of anti-semitic remarks during an arrest for drink driving in 2006. He has since had trouble finding acting work.

The film-makers are now attempting to ’shoot around’ De Niro’s character until they find a replacement.

The film, based on a BBC mini series of the same name, is directed by Casino Royale’s Martin Campbell and is scheduled for release next year.

Source: Daily Mail