Mel Gibson, who just directed Mark Wahlberg in the thriller “Flight Risk,” is eager to return to Las Vegas for another film.
“Mark Wahlberg is an industrious guy and great to work with. The production experience in Vegas was topnotch,” the “Lethal Weapon” star told the Las Vegas Review-Journal over the weekend. “I am certain Vegas will accommodate Mark in a big way. I look forward to coming back for big-budget movies.”
The “Braveheart” star and Wahlberg have also worked together in the past on 2022’s “Father Stu” and “Daddy’s Home 2.” He played Wahlberg’s dad in both movies.
Gibson is one of three Hollywood icons – along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone – whom President Trump in January named as special ambassadors to Hollywood.
“They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” Trump wrote at the time.
Mel Gibson is eager to return to Las Vegas for another film. Getty Images
Gibson told Sean Hannity in January that he found out he had been appointed a Hollywood ambassador when Trump posted about it, but he is “ready, willing and able to be of service in any way I can.”
The “Pocahontas” actor said that tax incentives to shoot projects in California haven’t been enough to keep the Golden State competitive.
“I had to shoot a film for one day in L.A., and it was cheaper for me to take the whole crew and fly them to Europe and shoot for three days, lodge them, fly them, everything, than it was to shoot one day just down the road,” Gibson explained. “So, there’s something really wrong there.”
Gibson just directed Mark Wahlberg in the thriller “Flight Risk.” Getty Images
Gibson noted that former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger “tried to level the playing field years ago, he couldn’t do it because there were obstacles.”
Hannity noted that many stars have left the state, asking why Gibson has decided to stay in Malibu.
“A lot of people have left, and I don’t blame them,” he agreed with Hannity. “It didn’t suit them anymore. Even people who were liberal, it didn’t suit them anymore, but if everybody leaves, what’s going to happen?”
When Hannity asked what his message would be to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as a Hollywood ambassador, he said, “Keep the kids on the farm. Be competitive with the rest of the world. . . . We’re going somewhere else because it’s just more cost-effective. There’s just a lot of prohibitive regulations and things in the way I think could be lifted.”
Mark Wahlberg stars in “Flight Risk.” Lionsgate
“I’ll talk with the guys about that later and get more specific,” Gibson said of Voight and Stallone. “And I have to educate myself more on that, too. But, I think it can be fixed.”
Although Gibson still lives in California, Wahlberg moved his family to Nevada three years ago and has talked about making the state “Hollywood 2.0.”
The “Shooter” actor is supporting Nevada bill 238, which would bring a movie studio to Summerlin, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, in a partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros, according to the Review-Journal.
“We’re looking to create 10,000 jobs on the studio alone. The average salary would be $100,000 more than it is now,” Wahlberg told Fox News Digital in 2023. “We want to train people both in front of and behind the camera, create jobs, first and foremost for locals, and then after that I think we can attract a lot of people.”
In 2022, Wahlberg told “The Talk,” “I moved to Nevada where, after this gubernatorial election, hopefully it will go to legislation and get a bill passed so we can get a tax credit for the state — build a state-of-the-art studio here and make this Hollywood 2.0.”
