Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
My my, does Mel have a hard time of it these days. When I was growing up, Mel Gibson was on that list with dudes like Clint Eastwood and Warren Beatty, these actors who were MOVIE STARS in the truest sense of the word. Now, even defending the actor puts your intentions under scrutiny. Nonetheless, the dude's still got gas in the tank, and aside from playing the villain in this summer's EXPENDABLES 3, he's also signed on to make a TAKEN-style thriller called BLOOD FATHER.
The production starts shooting in May, and will have Mel playing a father who needs to protect his 16-year-old daughter from murderous drug dealers. The director is Jean-Francois Richet, best known for the ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 remake and the two MESRINE films starring Vincent Cassel (both of which I recommend). As a fan of Richet's work, I have a feeling that this is going to turn out better than Liam Neeson's go-arounds with his director-of-choice of late, Jaume Collet-Serra.
GET THE GRINGO showed that older Mel has a weathered quality that adds miles of charisma to that legendary charm (and smile) of his. I'm not one of those people who lets the TMZ culture taint my image of acting talent; I believe Mel's got the talent, the intelligence, and the resolve to make his latter-day work significant (or, at the very least, entertaining), and I'm hoping this flick can help nudge him back in pop culture's favor. But considering how comfortably Hollywood and the rest of America tossed him on his ear (admittedly, those tapes and quotes are pretty effed up) maybe I shouldn't keep my hopes up.
Even more than TAKEN, the idea of Mel Gibson obsessing over his child's safety brings one thing to mind…
BLOOD FATHER starts shooting in May, and should be released sometime in 2015.
-Vincent Kim-Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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