Mel Gibson's “Get the Gringo” Headed Straight to Home Video

Once one of the biggest movies stars in the world, Mel Gibson has been reduced to Hollywood pariah. In fact, things have gotten so bad that he's now releasing films straight to video on-demand.

"Get the Gringo" stars Gibson as an outlaw who finds himself south of the border, first landing in a brutal prison before making it to the outside, where he meets a beautiful woman and befriends her young son, who find themselves targeted by the mob. Watching the trailer, it looks like "Payback "-era Gibson, the cynical, rye, tough guy with a heart and a sense of humor.

The film will be making its premiere May 1 on DirecTV before heading to Blu-ray, DVD and digital download, reported Deadline. Gibson co-wrote the film with Adrian Grunberg, who also directed.

Gibson's last film, "The Beaver," about a man who surrenders control of his life to a beaver hand-puppet, was an unqualified financial disaster. While it was decidedly uneven, it received generally favorable reviews and Gibson gave an Oscar-worthy performance. Still, the film took in just $970,816, despite being directed by Jodie Foster and featuring rising stars Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence.

So clearly it's time for Gibson to explore new options, like the nascent home-video distribution market, which is (incredibly) still years away from figuring itself out. With DirecTV offering the film for $10.99 a viewing (a number we find a little high), he needs only 100,000 people to give it a go for "Gringo" to outearn "Beaver."

This bind Gibson finds himself in is one entirely of his won making. Between the rants and drinking and so forth, Gibson has burned through more goodwill than Charlie Sheen could ever dream of. But the man seems genuinely contrite, has kept a sense of humor about his plight and will be remembered as a giant of Hollywood who was a talented actor, writer, director and producer. At 56, he's got plenty left in the tank, maybe video on-demand will give him a new lease on his career.

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