Director rejigs classic series for big screen

Martin Campbell. Photo / Supplied

Edge of Darkness might seem designed to put Mel Gibson back where he belongs, playing a desperate man in a thriller of conspiracy and revenge.

But for the film's expatriate New Zealand director Martin Campbell, the film is truly familiar territory - it's a remake of the classic BBC television series which he directed 25 years ago.

The success of the series shifted him to a feature film career which has included two Bond films (including Casino Royale), two Zorro flicks and the New Zealand-shot mountain rescue movie Vertical Limit.

The original Edge of Darkness was a product of the 80s Thatcher era and the nuclear politics of its time, combining it with the mystical ecology of "Gaia", which had the planet ridding itself of mankind and rejuvenating.

Writer Troy Kennedy Martin's original script had the hero, Ronald Craven, being turned into a tree at the end, after taking nature's side in the battle for the environment. That idea was scrubbed by the series' makers.

So it's not giving too much away to say that in the new version, Gibson - whose Thomas Craven is a Boston homicide cop hunting down his daughter's killers - does not turn into an oak in the final reel.

And there's no wandering down mineshafts in search of radioactive plutonium either.

Speaking from New Orleans where he is prepping for superhero movie The Green Lantern, Campbell makes no apologies on how the new version opts for thrills and action over eco-politics.

"I think there will be people who go 'oh God, it's not the same as the TV series ...' but it can be nothing else. The series is damn near 25 years old and the difference between then and now politically is enormous and a six-hour series, trying to compress that is something else.

"So, yeah, people will probably say I've screwed up the original. But I haven't screwed up the original. I have taken the idea and had to alter it to a) make it fit the times and b) make it fit the feature film format."

The film contains a mirror-flip to the original. That had Joe Don Baker as an American CIA agent. In this one his character is played by Brit Ray Winstone.

"It's reverse engineering," says Campbell. "But he's also a different character in this. Ray Winstone's character is much more a janitor whose job its to clean up any mess the government may be in. It's a different role. Again the character had to change to make the character work."

So did the actor. Robert De Niro was orignally cast in the role until he departed the production due to "creative differences".

"That is the thing you always put out. But it was absolutely true in this case. I know it's a euphemism for not getting on, but the truth is he and I just didn't see the part the same way. We had only worked together for a day. We had done some rehearsals and we decided to call it quits because there was no point going through with it if it wasn't going to work."

Campbell admits to being intimidated at first by Gibson, who after all is an Oscar-winning director himself. This is Gibson's first screen role since spending much of the past decade embroiled in controversy, whether it was for his 2006 drink-drive arrest or for his 2004 Passion of the Christ.

Amusingly, the film has Gibson delivering a threat with the line: "Either you are the one hanging on the cross or banging in the nails."

Campbell: "You do get intimidated, but to Mel's credit he did say 'I am just an actor on this.

"I am not the director or the producer, so that is how I should be treated'."