Ray Winstone joins Mel Gibson at the Edge of Darkness

Brit thesp Ray Winstone has replaced Robert De Niro in the big-screen adaptation of telly classic Edge of Darkness after the latter walked out two days into shooting over "creative differences", Variety reports. Winstone joins Mel Gibson on the Martin Campbell helmed project, which began production in Massachusetts on 18 …

[Secretgeek]

Bob Peck = Mel Gibson?

Oh dear god.

Flames because I'd rather set myself on fire than watch Hollywood massacre that excellent drama.

[andy gibson]

De Niro to Winstone?

I may not watch much TV or movies but that's a hell of a drop in quality.

[Dave Ashton]

Sigh

why bother? That series was nigh on perfect with Bob Peck et al. And Joanne Whalley. Ummmm... Joanne Whalley.

[Sam]

The Original

I remember the original...they have a lot to do to match it!

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe....?

.....the script was actually good - that would have stumped Bob de Niro, even scared to pants off him!

[NICHOLAS SAUNDERS]

Rehash for america?

Does that mean the heroes won't die as in the original...

[Mick Sheppard]

Funded by Orange?

This is sounding more and more like one of those Orange adverts you see when you go to the pictures to watch a film. I guess they are going to relay the existence of the plutonium to the waiting world via video calling. It doesn't matter if they're underground, Orange can get a single anywhere!

[Francis Vaughan]

Memories

....... Joanne Whalley, mmmm. Zoë Wanamaker was pretty hot too.

And the music. Eric has never been so sublime. They will probably get some pathetic modern rubbish. (Then again there is the connection with Mel, so maybe not)

There is no chance they can top the original.

[Colin MacLean]

Hood it up

How very interesting.

They should also bring in Winstone's mate from Robin Of Sherwood, Jason Connery.

One of the acting greats.

[Andy]

Which role?

Am I to understand that Winstone has the Jo Don Baker role? I guess that would work. I'd rather see him scaring the crap out of people with two bits of plutonium than De Nero.

[Craig Vaughton]

Music

More quality BBC TV ruined for a wider - read American, audience.

Question is will they dare to replace God's (aka Eric Clapton) excellent sound track?

[Anonymous Coward]

Starring Bob Peck?

... and,... and... the then sultry teenage Joanne Whalley, squirm.. really it was a can't-be-bettered drama, i'd go to the pictures to see it re-run.

[Paul Berry]

Gibson to turn into tree?

Must resist the inevitable joke about being wooden, etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

What a waste

Why do Hollyweird studios think that taking a classic drama and dumbing it down is a great idea? Just shows how bankrupt of ideas their creative departments are, I think that Bobby was frightened of handling plutonium, not the script... Darius Jedburgh for president !!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Joanne Whalley ....

Mmmmm, Joanne Whalley .... mmmmm ..... Oh, what's that? I'm sorry, I must have been day dreaming. Is it getting hot in here?

Ah, the remake, you ask? Surely, it's only being made to sell to American audiences who have never watched the absolutely brilliant (and still so) original ...

(PS: You can also catch a young Joanne Whalley in "Willow" - on the set of which she met hubby Val Kilmer).

[Vulpes Vulpes]

@ Andy

Seconded. Jo Don Baker was awesome. The scenes with the briefcase full of nasties and Jo Don in full Texan Armageddon mode were utterly ace, even if they required the suspension of so much disbelief that one could be persuaded that the LHC is safe.

[Anonymous Coward]

Great...

This is just what i needed to know. Thanks for ruining my weekend, Reg.

Paris, because she never disappoints.

[Matt Bryant]

Yawn.

So, another paranoid, scaremongering, anti-nuke, anti-corproration piece? Yes, the original was a well-made production with excellent acting, but the whole story was so far in the outfield it was comic. The original ending (ditched by the BBC2 crew because it was too far-fetched for even BBC2!) was supposed to be the dying cop is magically transformed into a tree, surrounded by the black flowers that were due to eat humanity (triffids, maybe?)! Given Gibson's contribution I expect another well-made, well-acted and beautifully shot picture with a plotline still full of truck-sized holes. I expect lots of pre-release marketing with references to other such anti-nuke/anti-corporation films such as Silkwood and The China Syndrome.

[blackworx]

Robert de Niro spat the dummy ha ha

When will Hollywood realise there are certain things it is good at and certain things it simply cannot do? When success, fame and ultimately huge piles of money are the driving factors in a production you don't get beautiful things in the same vein as Edge of Darkness.

There are songs that should never be covered by anyone else or even rehashed by the original artist - regardless of the talent involved - they are a perfect product of their time and place. Same goes for films like EoD.

@ Andy: True, but I'd rather sit down to the DVDs of a rainy Sunday and see Jo Don Baker do it.

Craven: "One thing through all this I've never been able to figure out: just whose side are you on Jedburgh?"

Jedburgh: "Me? Why, I'm on the side of the angels!"

Craven: "You are not, nor have you ever been, on the side of the angels."

[blackworx]

@ Matt

Unlike the decades of pro-nuke scaremongering propaganda that preceded it, Edge of Darkness was never punted as anything but pure fiction. Duck... and cover.

[g e]

Ummm Winstone?

If Winstone can play the part satisfactorily then surely Bob de Niro was somewhat 'over specced' for it? It'd be like replacing Cate Blanchet with Paris Hilton, or an R8 with a pushbike - why do you need an R8 when all you're doing is going to the shops once a week to buy microwave dinners ;o)

To paraphrase the versatile (ahem) Mr. Winstone:

... I'm 'enry the fakkin' aytf, I am, geezah

(OK, Sexy Beast was great but mostly for Ben Kingsley ;o), did anyone notice how incredibly 'Oaken' Winstone was in Beowulf?)

[Anonymous Coward]

Funding...

It's really quite difficult to see where this is going to get funding (a green anti-nucular anti-establishment drama, with Hollywood funding?????), which may in the end be a good thing if it makes people revisit the (unbeatable) original. Amazon don't have the BBC original themselves right now (their marketplace people do), other places do have it, it's also available through Guardian Reader Offers (but not online!) at £10:

http://www.guardianoffers.co.uk/mall/productpage.cfm/GuardianOffers/_MMEdgeOfDarkness/%2D/Edge-of-Darkness-%2D-The-Complete-Series

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/tvandradioblog/2008/sep/09/leaveourtvmemoriesalone

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm - Mel Gibson does 'Edge of Darkness'

Well we all know his thoughts on conspiracies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Gibson_DUI_incident#Arrest_and_leaked_report

So is this feature going to end up as 'The Protocols of Zion' with added plutonium?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dispute with DeNiro

I didn't know DeNiro was jewish?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ray Winstone is a brilliant actor

As long as you want a character exactly like Ray Winstone in your film.

Mel Gibson is just there as a historical consultant I expect.

[Adrian Esdaile]

It was the time of the Preacher...

Oh, no. Not Mel.

Maybe he heard the 'Time of the Preacher' and thinks it's about that jesus myth or something.

[Anonymous Coward]

Systime?

One for the dinosaur trainspotters, and a related one for the conspiracy-deniers

q1) where did the Systime offices feature in the original EoD, and what will be used instead?

q2) If you don't know who Systime were, try this Hansard extract:

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1986/feb/25/systime-plc

Having read the extent to which the processes of law and fair trade were distorted by illegal actions by the US company and their local representatives, actions which were ignored by UK law enforcement, for something relatively mundane like a superminicomputer, ask yourself whether the allegedly far-fetched nuclear-industry plotline in EoD is that far-fetched after all?

[Anonymous Coward]

Another pointless remake by the Yanks

First they butcher The Wicker Man now they want to do the same to Edge of Darkness ?

Sod off Mel , you're not doing a Scots accent as well are you? Get me coat, I'm not stopping to watch this

P

[Charlie Clark]

@Evil Graham

You're scum. Ray's the daddy.

[Scott Earle]

Re: Ray Winstone is a brilliant actor

Evil Graham is exactly correct - Ray Winstone plays a superb Ray Winstone. Sometimes you *do* want a character like that, and when he's being Ray Winstone, Ray Winstone is truly excellent.

Amazingly, I am not kidding too - I rate him highly as a psychopath. Actor! I mean an actor who plays an excellent psycopath.

But Edge of Darkness? The original was so good, it should be left alone.

Thinks: Remember "Wings of Desire"? Remade into "City of Angels" with Nicholas Fucking Cage, and relocated to Los Angeles. Remember "The Italian Job"? Set in Italy, of all places. Remade and reolcated.

Hollywood: Give it a rest, will you? There are some good films out there that do not involve California. You don't need to remake and enshiten them just so you can make cash out of more people.

And what is the Paris Hilton angle, anyway?