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No Edge Of Darkness For Robert De Niro
Actor exits Martin Campbell's thriller

05 September 2008  |  Written by Chris Hewitt  |  Source: Variety


Robert De Niro arrived in Massachusetts this week to begin shooting Martin Campbell’s dark thriller, Edge Of Darkness, in which he would have played a government operative trying to cover up the death of a young woman.

And today, Robert De Niro left the movie completely, citing creative differences. Now that’s fast.

The thriller, based on Campbell’s own groundbreaking BBC series, stars Mel Gibson as the policeman father of the dead girl who, in his grief-driven investigation, stumbles upon a government cover-up that goes way up. Way, way up.

The movie also stars Danny Huston, Shawn Roberts and Bojana Novakovic – but no longer De Niro. The plan at the moment is to shoot around his scenes until a replacement actor can be cast. Could be a couple of days, could be a couple of weeks, but we imagine that a replacement will be found pretty damn quickly.

The movie's producer, our very own Graham King, had negotiated a SAG waiver in order to shoot the movie – so, if the Screen Actors Guild calls a strike during production, he’d be able to finish it. That’s what we call preparation – but not even the esteemed King could possibly have seen this one coming.

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Your Comments

RE: RE:
L: benskelly L: Manfrendshensindshen Great, for the first time in about a decade I was interested in one of De Niro's projects - and now he quits. I've never heard of Campbell being particularly difficult to work with, so my - admittedly cynical - guess would be that De Niro gets physically sick if he gets close to what might turn out to be a quality movie. Hopefully he's now preparing himself for his role in Meet The Arshs And The Fokkers. That's a mighty big leap you just took More

Posted by Manfrendshensindshen at 14:31 on 07 September 2008 | Report This Post

RE: One day...
L: Nicky C ... I hope to find out what REALLY happened. 'Creative differences' sounds like 'gigantic clashing of egos' to me. sp; I'm withyou on this one, I first thought it was very odd that De Niro and Gibson would be in the same movie, it jsut seemed odd! How can DeNiro have "creative differences" with anyone after the stream of utter fucking dog piss he's made in the last how many years ?   Fingers crossed that this new one he made with Pacino is good ( I doubt it but I'm More

Posted by Sad Professor at 04:10 on 06 September 2008 | Report This Post

RE:
L: Manfrendshensindshen Great, for the first time in about a decade I was interested in one of De Niro's projects - and now he quits. I've never heard of Campbell being particularly difficult to work with, so my - admittedly cynical - guess would be that De Niro gets physically sick if he gets close to what might turn out to be a quality movie. Hopefully he's now preparing himself for his role in Meet The Arshs And The Fokkers. sp; That's a mighty big leap you just took.  All I ca More

Posted by benskelly at 03:41 on 06 September 2008 | Report This Post

Good Actor, Difficult Bloke.....
Aren't there contracts put in place to prevent this kind of thing? I mean surely he's read the script and met with the crew, can't be many surprises there huh? More

Posted by boredbluekoala at 23:46 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post

I used to be best friends with Bob Peck (the guy who played the lead on TV)'s son. Who is called George. Just putting that out there. More

Posted by hatebox at 18:57 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post

Hope springs
I loved the TV series and its still one of the best TV shows ever made. I think this will work as Campbell directed the TV Show and knows his stuff. As for a replacement Jedburg ? Well Joe Don Baker Played him ad a big gruff loud texan I think John Goodman could pull that off remeber Barton Fink? More

Posted by filmburner30 at 12:59 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post

Oh no...
How can Mel "sugartits" Gibson possibly take the place of the late, great Bob Peck in one of the greatest pieces of tv drama ever. How can Hollywood resist diluting it completely. Answer in both cases: they can't. Disaster ahoy! More

Posted by Targett at 12:16 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post

achenar
It's called editing. More

Posted by boriordan at 12:02 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post

Great, for the first time in about a decade I was interested in one of De Niro's projects - and now he quits. I've never heard of Campbell being particularly difficult to work with, so my - admittedly cynical - guess would be that De Niro gets physically sick if he gets close to what might turn out to be a quality movie. Hopefully he's now preparing himself for his role in Meet The Arshs And The Fokkers. More

Posted by Manfrendshensindshen at 11:20 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post

One day...
... I hope to find out what REALLY happened. 'Creative differences' sounds like 'gigantic clashing of egos' to me. More

Posted by Nicky C at 10:56 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post

i know it's hard boriordan, but you should really try to READ before you criticize the hell out of this article. mho aw More

Posted by achenar at 09:59 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post

Mel?
I can't believe there's no mention of Mel Gibson in this article since he is the other lead. I must introduce Empire to IMDB. I just wonder if the "creative differences" were with him. More

Posted by boriordan at 09:38 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post

i feel so bad for the production crew, this must be causing so much stress for the producers. how selfish of De Niro. More

Posted by Hughezy at 09:00 on 05 September 2008 | Report This Post


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