EXCLUSIVE: Mel Gibson is back in hero mode for Hot Seat, a thriller he’ll star in with production to begin November 1 in New Mexico. The Lionsgate company Grindstone Entertainment will handle North America distribution, and Highland Film Group is handling foreign sales. James Cullen Bressack will direct. He just helmed Fortress with Murray and Bruce Willis, which is in post.

Randall Emmett and George Furla are producing with Bressack. The pic is based on a story by Leon Langford & Collin Watts. Gary Raskin and Alastair Burlingham will be exec producers and are co-financing. Lionsgate is releasing through Emmett and Furla’s long term deal there.
In Hot Seat, an ex-hacker is forced to break into high-level banking institutions by an anonymous man who planted a bomb under his chair at his office. Gibson plays the man who must try to penetrate the booby-trapped building to get the young man off the hot seat.

Emmett has been transitioning to director after his Midnight In The Switchgrass debut, and he is in post on Wash Me In The River, which stars Robert De Niro, John Malkovich and Jack Huston. Emmett and Furla were producers on The Irishman, Silence and Lone Survivor.

“This is our third movie with Mel and we couldn’t be happier to continue the relationship with such an iconic and exceptional artist,” said Emmett and Furla.

Gibson is repped by APA and attorney Leigh Brecheen.

By Mike Flemming Jr., Deadline