From Passion of the Christ 2 to the long-awaited Lethal Weapon 5, Dragged Across Concrete’s Mel Gibson has a few exciting upcoming movies on the way.
Mel Gibson has a bunch of exciting upcoming movies, including Lethal Weapon 5. A formidable talent both in front of and behind the camera, Gibson is one of the most prolific multi-hyphenates in Hollywood. He got his breakthrough role as post-apocalyptic warrior Max Rockatansky in the Mad Max series, and has since played Porter in Payback, Nick Marshall in What Women Want, Guy Hamilton in The Year of Living Dangerously, and the titular prince in Franco Zeffirelli’s movie adaptation of Hamlet. Gibson won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for his work on the historical epic Braveheart, in which he starred as Scottish knight Sir William Wallace.
Gibson has done some of his most interesting work in recent years. He played vengeful dad John Link in Blood Father, crooked cop Brett Ridgeman in the grisly neo-noir Dragged Across Concrete, and a disillusioned Santa Claus targeted by an assassin in Fatman. Gibson has some exciting projects on the docket, both as an actor and as a director. He’s set to star as Cormac in The Continental: From the World of John Wick, a limited series spun off from the John Wick franchise. Gibson also has plenty of tantalizing movies on the horizon, including long-awaited sequels to both Lethal Weapon 4 and The Passion of the Christ.
Gibson is helming a sequel to his hit 2004 religious epic The Passion of the Christ, entitled The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection. In addition to directing, Gibson also co-wrote the screenplay with Randall Wallace, the Oscar-winning screenwriter Braveheart, and director of We Were Soldiers, also starring Gibson. Jim Caviezel will reprise his role as Jesus alongside Maia Morgenstern and Francesco De Vito, returning as Mary and Peter the Apostle, respectively. As the title would suggest, The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection will take place across the three days between Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection.
While no release date has been set for The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection, the sequel is filming in mid-2023 (via ET Canada). Based on this production schedule, the sequel could be released sometime in 2024, which would mark the 20th anniversary of the first movie. The original Passion of the Christ grossed a whopping $611 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), making it the highest-earning independent film ever made, so a sequel is a no-brainer from a commercial standpoint. The sequel might address the controversy surrounding the first film’s graphic violence.
Gibson is starring alongside Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in Boneyard, an indie crime thriller filming in Las Vegas (via The Hollywood Reporter). Inspired by true events, Boneyard will see Gibson playing an FBI agent who teams up with Albuquerque police to catch a notorious serial killer dubbed “The Bone Collector.” The chief of police, played by Jackson, believes that the killer they’re searching for may be one of the officers in his department. There’s no release date for Boneyard just yet, but since it’s already being shot, it won’t be long before it’s in the can.
Gibson is starring alongside Mason Thames (The Black Phone) and Lorraine Bracco (Goodfellas, The Sopranos) in Boys of Summer, a nostalgic fantasy adventure set in the summer of 1997. A plucky group of kids team up with a retired detective to take down a witch who’s settled into a comfortable life in Martha’s Vineyard. It’s being directed by David Henrie, best known for playing Luke Mosby in How I Met Your Mother and Justin Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place. There’s no release date for Boys of Summer yet, but it was in post-production in June 2022 (via Deadline), so it should be ready for release sooner than later.
Gibson has been cast opposite Garrett Hedlund in the thriller Desperation Road (via Variety). The film is being directed by Nadine Crocker, who made her directorial debut with the 2022 drama Continue. It’s based on the novel of the same name by Michael Farris Smith, who also wrote the screenplay adaptation. Hedlund plays ex-con Russell Gaines and Gibson plays his father, Mitchell, who’s helping him to leave his life of crime behind and go straight. When the bad guys come knocking, the estranged father and son have to go on the run together. Desperation Road sounds like a blend of film noir and road movie.
Gibson will star in the high-octane action movie Informant (via Collider), about a detective on the losing side of a battle with cancer who makes a grim arrangement with one of his most trusted informants. The detective stages a setup that will see him killed in the line of duty, so his family can receive government benefits they wouldn’t get if he was killed by his disease. The movie is being directed by Michael Oblowitz, an action filmmaker who’s been around since the 1970s, who previously directed Steven Seagal in the films Out for a Kill and The Foreigner.
In addition to Gibson, the cast of Informant will also feature Dominic Purcell, best known for his role as Lincoln Burrows in Prison Break; Nick Stahl, best known for his role as John Connor in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, who previously co-starred with Gibson in Gibson’s directorial debut, The Man Without a Face; and Kate Bosworth, best known for her role as Lois Lane in Superman Returns. Filming was underway in July 2022, so the movie is likely near completion, but there’s no confirmed release date set for Informant.
The long-awaited Lethal Weapon 5 is finally going ahead, with Gibson not only reprising his role as Martin Riggs, but also directing the movie (via the Daily Mail). Gibson will be taking on directing duties from the filmmaker behind the first four films, Richard Donner (also known for helming Superman: The Movie and The Goonies), who passed away in 2021. Donner had asked Gibson to direct Lethal Weapon 5 in the event of his passing. Gibson explained, “[Donner] said, ‘Hey kid, if I don’t make it, you’ll take the reins.’”
Danny Glover, who also gave Gibson his blessing to direct the film, is reprising his role as Riggs’ quotable long-time partner, Roger Murtaugh. Mel Gibson is working from a Lethal Weapon 5 script that Donner was developing before his death. The fifth movie reportedly has a more comedic sensibility than its predecessors. Every previous Lethal Weapon movie had plenty of humor, as Riggs and Murtaugh’s mismatched detective dynamic helped to define the “buddy cop” subgenre, but Lethal Weapon 5 will lean even further into the comedic aspect. While development is well underway, there’s no official release date for Lethal Weapon 5.
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