EXCLUSIVE: Mel Gibson and Frank Grillo are in talks to star in Boss Level, an action thriller that Joe Carnahan will direct next year. The premise: Every day, a retired special forces veteran (Grillo) is trapped in a never-ending loop resulting in his death. In order to stop his endless suffering, he must figure out who is responsible and stop them. Carnahan wrote the script.

The film will be financed by Emmett/Furla/Oasis, and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian, and Randall Emmett and George Furla. It is a co-production between EFO, Di Bonaventura Pictures, Carnahan and Grillo’s War Party, and Scott Free, whose Jules Daly will be exec producer.

Gibson comes to this after the successful opening of Daddy’s Home 2 at Paramount Pictures. He is getting close to securing indie financing for the film he will direct on the ruthless Italian banking family The Medicis to follow his Best Picture nominee Hacksaw Ridge. Other films he is plotting as an actor includes a re-team with Danny Glover and director Dick Donner for another Lethal Weapon film at Warner Bros.

Grillo just worked with EFO on the action film Reprisal, and starred in the Netflix film Wheelman.

Gibson is repped by CAA, Grillo by CAA and Management 360, and Carnahan by CAA.