Ray Winstone joins Mel Gibson at the Edge of Darkness

Brit thesp Ray Winstone has replaced Robert De Niro in the big-screen adaptation of telly classic Edge of Darkness after the latter walked out two days into shooting over "creative differences", Variety reports.

Winstone joins Mel Gibson on the Martin Campbell helmed project, which began production in Massachusetts on 18 August. Campbell directed the original 1985 BBC six-parter, starring Bob Peck, and he now faces the challenge of guiding Gibson to an equally convincing performance.

Winstone's role will be that of "an operative sent to clean up evidence in the murder of a woman". The cast also includes Danny Huston, Bojana Novakovic and Shawn Roberts.

The script for the rehash - which features "a straitlaced police investigator whose activist daughter is killed" and who subsequently "uncovers systemic corruption that led to his daughter's death" - is by William Monahan, screenwriter on The Departed. ®