Mel Gibson will lead the cast of ‘Hot Seat’.

The 65-year-old actor is set to star in the new thriller, which will be directed by James Cullen Bressack and is based on a story by Leon Langford and Collin Watts.

The movie follows a former hacker, who is forced to break into high-level banking companies by an anonymous man who has planted a bomb under his chair at his office. Mel will star as the man who has to get into the booby-trapped building and get the victim off the hot seat.

Production is scheduled to begin in New Mexico on 1 November and the movie will see Mel team with producers Randall Emmett and George Furla for a third time.

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

News of the project comes a few months after Mel signed up to star alongside Josh Duhamel and Elisha Cuthbert on ‘Bandit’, which is based on Robert Knuckle’s best-selling true crime novel ‘The Flying Bandit, Bringing Down Canada’s Most Daring Armed Robber’, which was inspired by the life of Gilbert Galvan.

Josh will portray the career criminal, who changed his named to Robert Whiteman and was dubbed The Flying Bandit after pulling off more than 50 bank and jewellery heists while Mel is set to portray lifetime gangster Tommy who gets involved in a huge heist alongside Whiteman.

Redbox Entertainment and Quiver Distribution will release the movie in cinemas and on demand next year and have promised big things from the film.

Quiver Distribution Co-Presidents Berry Meyerowitz and Jeff Sackman previously said: “We’re thrilled to again be partnering with Redbox Entertainment and Yale Productions after the successful collaborations with Becky and Chick Fight.

“Josh Duhamel shines as the anti-hero bandit that you will root for against Mel Gibson in this true action thriller that we know audiences will love.”

Last November, Mel also confirmed that director Richard Donner was working on ‘Lethal Weapon 5’, which will see him and Danny Glover reprise their roles as LA detectives Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh respectively.

Asked if the movie is still happening, Mel said: “Yeah! No absolutely.

“And the man who was behind all that – the man who brought it to the screen and gave it the goodies is working on it right now: Richard Donner. He’s a legend.”