Recently it was reported that Mel Gibson would have a cameo in The Hangover 2 that compare to Tom Cruise’s Les Grossman character in Tropic Thunder. Cruise’s role, as well as boxer Mike Tyson’s in The Hangover, helped to rejuvenate their careers after some troubles with the public eye, and it was expected that this might do the very same for Gibson.

Instead, we’re now hearing that complications have arisen, and Gibson’s cameo in The Hangover 2 has been scrapped. Director Todd Phillips wanted Mel for the small role, but it sounds like some of his cast and crew (unidentified) were against it, and the plan required halting.

It’s been confirmed that a very interesting star will be making an appearance in Todd Phillips‘ comedy sequel, The Hangover 2.

Sources indicate that none other than Mel Gibson will have a role in the movie, and that it will be “larger than life,” much like Tom Cruise’s Les Grossman role in Tropic Thunder. Cruise, much like Gibson, was under a lot of fire for various things before he played Grossman, but when everyone saw the wild and over-the-top performance, most went back to loving him. You have to imagine that this is the overall gameplan for Gibson in The Hangover sequel as well.

Edge of Darkness
Directed by Martin Campbell
Staring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston
Rated R
Release date: January 29, 2010

It has been exactly eight years since Mel Gibson headlined his own movie (and if you guessed Signs, you get shiny bonus points) but that does not mean he hasn’t been in the spotlight. When he was not directing movies depicting Jesus’ death or Mayans, he was caught in one drunken scandal after another. Hollywood is a strange place though and everyone is one hit movie away from being a hot property again. Perhaps Edge of Darkness, a revenge story set in Boston, is just what he is looking for.

Gibson stars as grizzled cop Thomas Craven, a devoted single father to his little girl Emma (Bojana Novakovic). During a trip home to see Thomas, Emma is taken, shot and killed by a masked assailant right at his front door. Led to believe this act was committed by a criminal from his past, Thomas spirals into grief and madness knowing he had a hand in his little girl’s death. However, when evidence comes up that perhaps the killer was targeting Emma all along, Grief begets violence as Thomas does whatever it takes to uncover the whole truth.

Empire Magazine celebrated their 20th anniversary a while back, and they made sure to do it proper. Many big news stories and goodies came from the event, but one of the big plans they hatched, was to attempt to book a bunch of the world’s biggest Hollywood stars for a photo shoot where they would re-create some of their own classic film scenes.

The result: big stars showed up. Lot’s of them. And though they didn’t get completely dressed in costume (the plan was to simply shoot them in nice attire with obvious props used to clarify the film), many fantastic images now exist. The list of names is impressive and includes Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise, Christian Bale, Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Mel Gibson, Laurence Fishburne, Ben Stiller, Viggo Mortensen, Kevin Spacey, Matt Damon, Anthony Hopkins, and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, naturally! Movies that were re-created include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Braveheart, The Matrix, Sev7en, Silence of the Lambs, Jurassic Park, and Shaun of the Dead.

Click over to the other side to check out some of the images we were quite smitten with; head over to Empire in order to see many more, including a lot more stars and movies not mentioned here!

Just this week, we were treated to a brief glimpse of some of the vehicles that series writer and director George Miller was having constructed for his long-awaited fourth chapter in the Mad Max franchise, which is being called Fury Road. During that interview, Miller stated that they were in the process of casting but had no idea who would be chosen yet. Whether that was the truth or not is unknown, but it did not take long to find out that two actors have indeed been chosen. It’s being reported that Academy Award winner Charlize Theron and up-and-comer Tom Hardy have been cast in the lead roles.

Hardy will be filling the large shoes once occupied by Mel Gibson as the vengeful post-apocalyptic hero, Max. Theron will be taking the female lead in which details are not yet known. The movie is said to be a sequel, taking place a short time after the events of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. This means that the hopes for a Gibson cameo as the original Max is unlikely, but a cameo as someone else could still be put together for amusement purposes.