Actor Mel Gibson, absent from the big screen for the past six years while pursuing directorial projects, will return before the camera to star in a police thriller, Hollywood media reported.

Gibson is to play the lead in Edge of Darkness adapted from a British television series entertainment daily Variety reported.

In the film, he plays a police officer whose political activist daughter is slain.

Gibson, 52, directed the popular, but highly controversial 2004 Bible epic Passion of Christ, followed in 2006 by Apocalypto, a violent retelling of the fall of the Mayan empire.

His last on-screen turn was in Signs by M. Night Shyamalan.

Gibson’s 1996 film Braveheart, the 13th century epic about William Wallace’s quest to unite the Scots and overthrow English rule, earned him Oscars for best director and best picture.