Mel Gibson being courted for role in Mark Wahlberg’s Six Billion Dollar Man

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Mark Wahlberg's THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN has been in development for the past four years, but with several setbacks continuously pushing back its release, it'd be understandable if you simply assumed we'd never see it. Warner Bros. slated the film for a May 31, 2019 release last month, and with production expected to begin later this summer, we're likely to start hearing about just who will be joining Mark Wahlberg in the big-screen adventure. According to THR, one of those people could be Mel Gibson.

The outlet doesn't know which role Mel Gibson is being courted for, but adds that Mark Wahlberg is pushing for his involvement after working with him on DADDY'S HOME 2. Mark Wahlberg is set to star as Steve Austin, a military officer who is given bionic body parts and extraordinary abilities by a secret government program after a horrific accident nearly ends his life. One issue which may prevent Gibson from taking part in THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN is that he's also preparing to direct another feature.

Per THR, Gibson is set to take the helm of DESTROYER, a World War II drama which tells the tale of how the crew of the USS Laffey "heroically withstood twenty-two kamikaze attacks at Okinawa in what the US Navy called 'one of the great sea epics of the war.'" Scripted by Rosalind Ross, DESTROYER is based upon John Wukovits' nonfiction book "Hell From the Heavens: The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II’s Greatest Kamikaze Attack," and Wukovits used personal interviews with the survivors, the memoirs of crew members, and the sailors’ wartime correspondence in order to construct the story. Mel Gibson's last film, HACKSAW RIDGE, also dealt with the Battle of Okinawa and scored Gibson his first Academy Award nomination since BRAVEHEART. It's likely that DESTROYER will be Gibson's next directorial effort, but it's simply the matter of when he'll be able to begin. If he does take on a role in THE SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN, production on DESTROYER may get pushed into the winter.