Mel Gibson to reunite with Shane Black on "Cold Warrior"

 Mel Gibson is about to blast back onto screens this week with "Edge of Darkness, a revenge thriller with political elements, it's a return to badass form for Gibson according to most reports and he is already lining up his next action outing, teaming up with "Lethal Weapon" scribe Shane Black, Variety has the details.

Mel Gibson is in talks to star in Universal Pictures' spy thriller "Cold Warrior."

Project reunites Gibson with "Lethal Weapon" scribe Shane Black, who is helming.

Based on a script by Chuck Mondry, pic centers on a spy from the Cold War era who comes out of retirement to team with a younger agent from the new school to confront a domestic terrorism threat orchestrated by Russia.

Pic will be produced by Michelle Manning ("The Eye"). David Greenblatt and Anthony Bagarozzi are also producing.Gibson has been absent from the bigscreen ever since his 2006 drunken-driving arrest, when he reportedly made anti-Semitic remarks. In the ensuing years, Hollywood's majors have been reluctant to cast the actor in a starring role, and Gibson has instead signed on to a number of independently financed projects, including "Edge of Darkness," which opens Friday. He recently completed production on Jodie Foster's "Beaver."

"Cold Warrior" marks the actor's return to toplining a studio-backed project.

Gibson will begin shooting in March the indie action drama "How I Spent My Summer Vacation," based on a screenplay he penned. He told Daily Variety that he is hoping to segue to "Cold Warrior" in June. Gibson also recently committed to direct Leonardo DiCaprio in a pic about Viking culture to be financed by GK Films. That pic has no start date.

I recall this one being announced quite a while back but I figured like many projects it had hit a wall, great to see it revived,  Gibson is an ideal choice for this role and hopefully they cast the young agent with Mel's age in mind, Gibson is looking very craggy these days so they don't need to cast someone who looks straight out of college, I'd go for Ryan Reynolds or Jake Gyllenhaal.

On the directing front I am glad to see Black back in the directors chair as I loved "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" and despite the fact he will be working from someone else's script I am sure he will have given the dialgue a once over given the buddy buddy dynamics of the concept.