Mel Gibson is set to enter battle again, as the Academy Award-winning director has signed on to helm the World War II drama, ‘Destroyer,’ The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively announced. The movie will be his second WWII film in a row, after he directed the 2016 Oscar-nominated biographical drama, ‘Hacksaw Ridge.’
Like Gibson’s previous effort, ‘Destroyer’ will focus on the Battle of Okinawa, which occurred in April 1945. But the filmmaker’s upcoming project will focus on a different aspect of the battle.
Gibson’s longtime girlfriend, Rosalind Ross, made her feature film writing debut on ‘Destroyer.’ The script is based on the nonfiction book about the Battle of Okinawa, ‘Hell From the Heavens: The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II’s Greatest Kamikaze Attack,’ which was penned by John Wukovits. The true story of the USS Laffey follows a crew of naval officers who successfully defended the naval destroyer against 22 different Kamikaze attacks by the Japanese army, despite suffering 32 deaths on board.
There’s no set time frame yet for the start of production on ‘Destroyer,’ however. Gibson is also in negotiations to star in a major role in the big-screen reboot of the 1970s television series, ‘The Six Billion Dollar Man,’ which already has Mark Wahlberg attached as a star. But the sci-fi action movie is set to begin shooting this summer and go into the fall. So if Gibson does join the cast, the production of ‘Destroyer’ may be pushed back to winter 2019.