Mel Ready for Edge-y Movie Comeback

Mel Gibson has signed on to star in his first film since 2002, and his first since his DUI meltdown

A remake of Schindler's List, it's not.

Mel Gibson is ending his self-imposed hiatus from acting, signing on to star in a gritty police thriller called Edge of Darkness, according to Variety.

The role is the actor-director's first film since the 2002 twofer of We Were Soldiers and Signs, when he took a long break to go behind the camera to direct the controversial 2004 blockbuster The Passion of the Christ and the 2006 Mayan action drama Apocalypto.

It also marks Gibson's first big-screen appearance since his infamous DUI arrest nearly two years ago.

Edge follows a straitlaced police detective whose investigation of his activist daughter's murder leads him to uncover an underworld of government corruption that caused her death.

Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) will direct the flick, which is based on the six-hour 1985 BBC miniseries of the same name, which he also helmed.

William Monahan, who won an Oscar for writing 2006's The Departed, penned the adaptation. Like that earlier flick, Edge of Darkness will be set in Boston.

Gibson reportedly agreed to the part after being approached by Campbell and The Departed producer Graham King, who began wooing the 52-year-old thesp several months ago and is currently self-financing the project.

Aside from Edge, the Oscar-winning multihyphenate is also considering the Mad Max-style crime drama, Under and Alone, about a veteran cop who goes undercover to infiltrate a dangerous outlaw biker game, per IMDb.

A reunion is also possibly in the works with Richard Donner, who directed Gibson in the Lethal Weapon series and Conspiracy Theory. The pair is said to be thinking about doing the drama Sam and George, about two friends who reunite after one gets out of prison after 20 years for a crime he didn't commit.

Edge of Darkness is slated to begin shooting in August and hit theaters sometime in 2009.