XALAPA ? Hollywood actor and director Mel Gibson will clear out a prison to shoot scenes for his second movie in Mexico, to take place next year, according to the governor of Veracruz.

Gibson will return to eastern Mexico, where he shot the 2006 movie Apocalypto, Fidel Herrera Beltran told local journalists on Sunday.

"My friend Mel is coming to work for many months here in Veracruz," Beltran said.

Prisoners would be transferred from the Ignacio Allende prison to other state facilities to make way for filming from January, the governor said, adding that construction of a new prison in the area would finish beforehand.

Gibson has already visited the Allende prison, and he donated $1 million toward hurricane relief in the Gulf of Mexico region in 2005.

Many Mexican prisons are notorious for overcrowding and rioting.