It’s all supposed to be stealthy and secret, but we hear Robert DeNiro is this close to signing on to co-star in the made-in-Mass. movie Edge of Darkness.

The crime thriller, based on a popular BBC miniseries, stars Mel Gibson as a seasoned Boston police detective investigating the death of his activist daughter, played by Aussie actress Bojana Novakovic.

The creepy flick, which will be directed by Martin Campbell and written by Oscar-winning The Departed screen scribe William Monahan, will shoot in and around Boston and the Berkshires from Aug. 18 to December.

When asked about the DeNiro signing or which character the Hollywood heavy would play, the production company had no comment.

However, we do know that Boston Casting is holding an open call for age 18-plus Screen Actors Guild members from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday. Non-union talent will be seen from 2 to 4 p.m. Bring a photo and resume to 129 Braintree St., Allston.

Another open call for adult extras is Aug. 9 in Northampton. As always, do tell them the Track sent cha.

Source: The Boston Herald

Malice. Adultery. Psycho-killers. Abortion.

Directors bent on filming dark movies know where to go. We call it Northampton. It’s no mystery, then, that the makers of the new Mel Gibson flick, Edge of Darkness, have scoped out the place once dubbed “the Paradise of America” for some creepy scenes.

Production people from the movie have been talking to police and other local officials about the possibility of shooting in Northampton this fall. The Hampshire County Courthouse is one prospective setting, although other prominent locales have also been mentioned.

Police Capt. Joseph W. Koncas said film officials have been in touch with his department to discuss issues such as traffic control and security for possible filming. Hampshire County Clerk of Courts Harry Jekanowski Jr. said there have also been inquiries about using the old courtroom in the original courthouse for a scene.

According to the Web site for the entertainment magazine Variety, Edge of Darkness will be a film adaptation of the popular British television serial of the same name. The story revolves around a policeman who witnesses the brutal killing of his daughter. His investigation leads him into a murky world of government cover-ups and corporate intrigues.

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Usually, the Hub hearts Hollywood, and is happy to host all the A-list stars who come to town to shoot movies. Not so much Mel Gibson. The Aussie actor, who’ll be in Boston this fall to film the cop drama Edge of Darkness, is getting a cold shoulder from the owners of a Roslindale apartment building.

Seems the couple have denied “Edge” director Martin Campbell’s bid to use their Bradfield Street building during filming. Why? They’re upset about an anti-Semitic comment Mel made to the police officer who arrested him for DUI near his Malibu home. “[Expletive] Jews,” the Mad Max actor told officer James Mee in 2006. “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”

The couple isn’t talking about the contretemps with Mel, but their nephew Brian Keaney, who blogs at MyDedham.org, is. Keaney told us his aunt and uncle were initially excited when Hollywood came calling. “Until they found out Mel Gibson was involved,” said Keaney. “The whole family’s very proud of them for standing up to [Gibson]. You can’t make comments like that and get away with it.”

The movie, which is written by Departed scribe William Monahan, is about a police investigator - played by Gibson - whose activist daughter is killed under mysterious circumstances. “I think the filmmakers might come to my uncle and aunt later and see if this has blown over,” Keaney said. “But the answer’s going to be the same.”

Source: The Boston Globe

Added a few pics from Mel’s win at the People’s Choice Awards back in ‘01. Enjoy!

Hollywood actor and producer Mel Gibson flew across the world to speak about his passion – the Mirador Basin Project.

Unknown to many, the Mirador Basin in Guatemala is the last tract of virgin rainforest remaining in Central America. More importantly, it is home to the largest and earliest cities of the Maya world.

“This is indeed the biggest ‘green’ project that I’ve stepped into and I am very passionate about it.

“I am absolutely in love with the project and struck by wonders of what can be found,” said Gibson, who is here to address Malaysian corporate leaders and environmentalists on the project as well as to raise funds and create awareness.

“It is not developed and there are no roads. It is good that there are no roads so people will not be able to burn the landscape and log,” he said.

Gibson, who is chairman of Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies (Fares), is already working with local company Petra Group and the Sekhar Foundation to further develop the project.

The 52-year-old actor of several blockbuster movies like Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, Braveheart and Apocalypto, and the producer and director of The Passion of the Christ said he first knew about Mirador Basin four years ago.

“I got myself involved in 2004 after my encounter with Dr Richard Hansen, an archaeologist who has devoted over 30 years of his life to this cause. I saw him one day on National Geographic and the rest is history,” he related.

“What Hansen and his team are doing is great but they lack in funds,” he said, adding that some US$600,000 to US$800,000 (RM1.94mil to RM2.59mil) is spent each year to maintain the work.

Sekhar Foundation’s Datuk Vinod Sekhar said much could be learnt from each other.

Apart from supporting the Mirador Basin Project, the foundation is also funding, supporting and facilitating an international research, training and environmental education programme in rainforest ecology conducted by the Royal Society South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme at the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah.

“We can share what we’ve done here and bring it to Mirador Basin,” Vinod said.

Source: The Star

Can’t blame a guy for trying! (O_o)

If a higher power asks for a rewrite, what are you gonna do?

The scribe suing Mel Gibson for fraud over a royalty dispute related to The Passion of the Christ filed an amended lawsuit Monday after being told his original complaint “lacked specificity” and was taking a “chain letter” approach.

Benedict Fitzgerald, who with Gibson penned the Passion screenplay, sued the filmmaker in February for $10 million, claiming he was more or less screwed into accepting a lower-than-normal fee for working on the script after Gibson told him the budget for the film was very small and that he himself would not be taking any proceeds until he had compensated his crew.

Of course, the film went on to gross more than $600 million worldwide—seemingly more than enough to go around.

Meanwhile, Gibson’s camp is looking to have six of the nine allegations leveled at him—including all mentions of fraud—excised from Fitzgerald’s suit.

A judge ruled in May that all of the financial records pertaining to the Passion’s budget and box office will be kept sealed and only made available to each side’s counsel.

Source: E! Online

“The Cleaner,” which follows the adventures of an “extreme interventionist,” is a slightly exasperating new series from A&E — its first original scripted show in six years, the network is proud to point out. There are some good things here, and some that are less good: It’s a mix of the professionally done, the professionally overdone, the reasonably convincing, the surprisingly hackneyed and the occasionally absurd.

We are told by an opening title card that William Banks, who is played by Benjamin Bratt, formerly of “Law & Order,” “has saved 257 people from addiction to drugs, sex and gambling.” (I love the specificity of that figure.) “He’s not a cop,” the title continues. “He’s not a superhero. He’s just a man with a Calling.” Yet he has made himself hard to find, so he’s a man with a calling whom you really have to want to call.

The show is loosely based on the real-life work of Warren Boyd — same initials, see — who is the man Mel Gibson brought to Courtney Love’s Beverly Hills hotel room a few years back to convince her to go into treatment. (Love later recommended him to Whitney Houston.) A figure obviously to be reckoned with, he has developed, according to an A&E news release, “a partly secretive, partly incomprehensible, very nontraditional method that he employs on a daily basis to help others get clean.” Those others range from “high-profile names to perfect strangers.”

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I tried my very best. Ended up having to re-install and re-upload previous photos, but there are tons of new ones too!

Here you go, I’ve added the following images/albums, enjoy! …

Candids

2002
~ Jun 10 - Mel and Robyn having coffee
~ Nov 19 - Holy Mass in Rome

2004
~ Undated - Checks Out His Newly Purchased Fiji Island
~ Mar 17 - Mel and Robyn on the beach

2006
~ Undated - Mel chatting with Christian
~ Nov 17 - Dinner in Malibu with Tommy and William

2007
~ Mar 6 - Mel and Ed’s visit to Panama
~ Jun 14 - Mel and Ed in Cartegena, Colombia
~ Nov 19 - Mel and Tommy at LA Lakers Game
~ Dec 10 - Viva La Diva at Carling Apollo

2008
~ Jan 11 - Malibu, CA
~ May 18 - Britney’s Costa Rica Vacation with the Gibsons

Films

~ Apocalypto
~ The Passion of the Christ
~ Braveheart

Press

Magazine Scans
~ Entertainment Weekly - 2004 February
~ Esquire - 2002 February
~ Movieline - 2000 July
~ George Magazine - 2000 July
~ Sunday Magazine - 1998 February 8
~ Studio Magazine - Jan 1997
~ Detour Magazine - 1995 May
~ Entertainment Weekly - 1993 August 20
~ Various Covers

Public Appearances

Movie Premieres
~ Nov 1 - Ransom Premiere (Los Angeles)
~ Dec 13 - What Women Want Premiere (Los Angeles)
~ Jun 27 - The Patriot Premiere (Los Angeles)
~ Feb 25 - We Were Soldiers Premiere (Los Angeles)
~ Jul 29 - Signs Premiere (Los Angeles)
~ Jan 15 - Apocalypto Premiere (Mexico City)
~ Oct 29 - American Gangster LA Premiere

Conferences, Events, and Visits
~ Jul 9 - Costa Rica Presidential House
~ Sept 6 - Visiting University of Limkokwing in Malaysia
~ Sept 11 - Forbes Global GEO Conference
~ Jan 20 - GDay USA Hollywood Ashes and Aussie Picnic Date

Award Ceremonies
~ Feb 17 - 5th Irish Film And Television Awards
~ Apr 14 - 15th Annual First Americans In Arts Awards

It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a really bad movie or a really bad meal, there comes a time when you can admit that you’ve had enough and need to give up.

While I fully expected “10,000 BC” to be a horrible film, I couldn’t have predicted the level of garbage that it is.

A big budget film that comes across like a high school production, “10,000 BC” rubbed me the wrong way from the first bit of dialogue. Instead of trying to follow the lead of such films as “Apocalpyto” and “The Passion of the Christ,” the creators of “10,000 BC” chose not to look into the possibility of re-creating an ancient language.

Maybe if Mel Gibson had directed it instead of Roland Emmerich (”Godzilla,” “The Day After Tomorrow”) it would’ve been more believable and not so lazy.

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What a difference six months makes. Looking sun-kissed and groomed as she emerged from a beauty salon, Britney Spears looked a world away from the singer whose drama-packed life constantly made the headlines earlier in the year.

The Toxic star reportedly spent four hours having extensions added to her tresses in preparation for shooting a video to accompany Madonna’s ‘Sweet And Sticky’ tour.

Britney’s soul-searching sessions with friend and former neighbor Mel Gibson and her father Jamie seem to have paid off. Not only does the pop princess have greater access to her children with Kevin Federline, she’s also planning a triumphant return to the music scene.

“The video (for Madonna) will be very deep. You’ve never seen Britney like this before. It will blow your mind,” promised an insider.

Source: Hello Magazine