Mel Gibson is one of the most recognizable actors on the planet, a successful movie star who helped turn the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon franchises into worldwide successes, and the Academy Award winning director of Braveheart who just this year earned another Oscar nomination for his World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge.
So ordinarily it would come as little surprise that he’s in the running to direct a major blockbuster like Suicide Squad 2, the upcoming sequel to last summer’s supervillain team-up that starred Margot Robbie, Will Smith and Jared Leto. Mel Gibson confirmed the news himself at last night’s Q&A screening of Hacksaw Ridge, describing the talks as a “first date” between himself and Warner Bros (via Batman-News). But the context here is a little different.
Warner Bros.
Before we go any further, let’s clarify that it’s far from certain at this point that Mel Gibson will actually take the job. Variety reports that several other directors are under consideration for Suicide Squad 2, including Daniel Espinoza (Life), Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies) and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland). David Ayer, the director of the first Suicide Squad, has moved on to another DC Extended Universe project, Gotham City Sirens, which will highlight various female superheroes and villains. Margot Robbie is producing and expected to return on-camera as Harley Quinn.
And again, ordinarily this would be a standard piece of movie news. A director with several hits under his belt, fresh off of an Oscar nomination, in talks to direct a high-profile project for a major studio. But industry analysts are looking closely at Mel Gibson right now, because despite his multiple early successes the filmmaker became a controversial figure in 2006, after a drunk driving arrest led to the actor yelling out anti-semitic rhetoric.
The Passion of the Christ director didn’t make another movie for several years, and when he returned his films struggled to find an audience. Since 2010, Mel Gibson has acted in non-starters like Edge of Darkness and The Beaver, and disappointing sequels like Machete Kills and The Expendables 3.
Summit Entertainment
It wasn’t until Hacksaw Ridge became a box office success, earned a “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes and received six Oscar nominations including Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture that Mel Gibson has seemingly earned back Hollywood’s good graces. But is the road to redemption finally over for Mel Gibson? Are audiences as eager to forget as his industry connections? Or is this story still far from over?
We don’t know the answers yet, but we’ll be watching closely to see how Hollywood handles his return to the limelight, and how audiences respond to the filmmaker taking on high-profile superhero projects.
Where Oscar Winners Keep Their Oscars
Top Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Where Do they Keep Their Oscars?
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Dustin Hoffman
A studious man who won Academy Awards for his performances in both Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man has said that he keeps his Oscars in his study. We haven't been to Hoffman's house, but it's easy to imagine a room full of books, low lighting, and darkened wood furniture. This was admitted to InStyle, where he also said they used to be kept out of sight.
Image: MGM/UA
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Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson has won two Oscars, one for her performance in Howard's End, and another for her writing of Sense & Sensibility. In an interview with The Guardian she said her statuettes were gaudy, and the only good place for them is in her bathroom.
Image: Columbia Pictures
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George Clooney
Clooney also has two Academy Awards, for acting in Syriana, and for producing the Best Picture winner Argo. Like Hoffman, as he told The Guardian, he keeps his statuettes in a studious place: His personal library.
Image: Warner Bros.
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Goldie Hawn
Hawn won an Academy Award back in 1969 for her performance in Cactus Flower, playing opposite Walter Matthau. A famously spiritual person, Hawn, according to InStyle, keeps her Oscar in a room in her house she calls "The India Room." It's where she goes to meditate.
Image: Columbia Pictures
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Gwyneth Paltrow
Paltrow won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Shakespeare in Love, and she may feel ambivalent about the attention she got. She claims to have her statuette "tucked away." Evidently, as she told Digital Spy, it's not on display anywhere.
Image: Miramax
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Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence, one of the more lauded actresses of her generation, won an Oscar for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook, and gave the statuette to her parents. According to The Radio Times, they keep it in her old Kentucky home, on top the piano.
Image: The Weinstein Company
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Jodie Foster
For many years, Foster, who won Oscars for The Accused and for The Silence of the Lambs, kept her Oscars in the bathroom in an attempt to be modest. She has since moved them into a trophy case. This was a fact collected by ABC News.
Image: Orion Pictures
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Kate Winslet
The bathroom seems to be a rather popular place to keep an Oscar. I like to think that all actors keep them atop their toilet tanks. Winslet, who won her Oscar for The Reader, has said her statuette is in her loo, according to an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Image: The Weinstein Company
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Russell Crowe
Crowe, who won an Oscar for Gladiator, feels that the statuette has some appealing properties that help chickens lay eggs, so he keeps his statuette, as he told The Guardian, in a chicken coop in his Australian ranch.
Image: DreamWorks
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Timothy Hutton
Once, just to play a prank on some party guests, Timothy Hutton stuck his Oscar, won for Ordinary People, in his refrigerator. Evidently, according to ABC News, he liked in there so much, that it remains there to this day.
Image: Paramount
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Tom Hanks
Hanks famously won the Best Actor Oscar two years in a row (for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump), but he is still one of the friendlier and humbler of Hollywood's giant stars, keeping his Oscars - according to The Hollywood Reporter - on the same shelf as football trophies and "World's Greatest Mom" trophies.
Image: TriStar Pictures
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Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin admitted to InStyle Magazine that she keeps her Oscar for The Piano, won when she was a wee lass, in her closet next to her boots.
Image: Miramax
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Susan Sarandon
As told to The Hollywood Reporter, Susan Sarandon, who won an Oscar for Dead Man Walking, used to keep her Oscar in a guest bathroom, but eventually lent it to a traveling exhibit in the Natural History Museum, according to what she told ABC News. It doesn't seem to be in earshot anymore.
Image: Gramercy Pictures
