[AP file photo]

PANAMA CITY, Panama - Mel Gibson, fresh off his Mexico-based epic "Apocalypto," is thinking of heading south to film a movie in Panama, tourism officials said Monday.

Gibson dined Sunday night with Ruben Blades, a tourism spokesman and singer, who suggested his next project should be a remake of the 1950 film noir "Panic in the Streets," set in Panama, the Panama Tourism Bureau said in a news release.

Panamanian filmmaker Jose Severino was quoted in Monday editions of the daily newspaper La Prensa as saying that he was in negotiations with Gibson to produce a movie about Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from its eastern shore.

The tourism bureau said Gibson and Blades spoke of the actor-director's experience directing "Apocalypto," an epic movie about the demise of the Mayan civilization. The movie was filmed in the jungles of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, and was released last year.