Edge Of Darkness Movie Trailer And Poster

Warner Bros. has released the trailer for Edge of Darkness, featuring Mel Gibson's first starring role since 2002. Martin Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale) directs the movie, which is a remake of the very highly regarded UK mini-series from 1985 that Campbell also directed. Sadly, the trailer mostly looks like a routine potboiler, but it has a few moments that shine through. Check it out after the break.

Originally Robert De Niro was cast as the character now played by Ray Winstone, so my first viewing of this trailer was all about reconciling how I'd once imagined De Niro working that role in comparison to Winstone's work. I like Winstone a lot, and he gets a couple of my favorite moments in this clip.

And, really, things are going pretty well in this trailer as it sets up the story of Gibson's murdered daughter, a possible conspiracy and presents what looks like an alliance between Gibson and Winstone. And then Gibson actually says "I'm a guy with nothing to lose," and I'm taken right out of it. That's a line you should only hear in a Family Guy parody of a film like this. But elsewhere the old Mel Gibson intensity is very much in evidence, especially in the trailer's kicker line. (A consistent Boston accent isn't quite as much in evidence, but I can look past that.)

The original mini-series had nuclear power and environmental concerns as motivating issues, and I don't know if those carry through to this version. While Campbell and original producer Michael Wearing are part of this remake, original writer Try Kennedy Martin is not.

Warner Bros. has also released the poster for the film, which you can see below the embedded trailer. Edge of Darkness will be released in January 2010. Meanwhile, Martin Campbell should soon be getting to work on his Green Lantern film.

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