Warner Bros Shuts Down Gibson Film: Should Anyone Care?

Edit: what does it matter if Warner Bros shuts it down anyway? They had nothing to do with the Passion either.

April 11, 2012,

By Sharon Waxman and Brent Lang
TheWrap

Exclusive -- Warner Bros. has put on hold a controversial Mel Gibson movie project about the Jewish Maccabee revolt in the 2nd century B.C. after reading the script by writer Joe Eszterhas, TheWrap has learned.

A spokesman for the studio told TheWrap, "We are analyzing what to do with the project."

Jewish groups were outraged after news broke in September that Gibson had reached a production deal with Warner's to direct the story of Judah Maccabee, whose victory over Greek and Syrian armies is celebrated at Hanukkah. One Jewish group called it "a moral lapse in judgment."

Link to original...

Another reason might be that he no longer gets along with Joe Esterhas who denounced him in a 9 page letter, here.

H/t: cathinfo.com...

Mel Gibson to Make His Maccabees Film

Edit: Not really a shocker for anyone who reads this blog regularly. Mr. Gibson is continuing his creative pilgrimage by making something that will have something for everyone, including his detractors. There is as yet no word about how Protestants will feel about a Deuterocanonical book being the subject of his next religious film.

It will do something no religious film we know of has attempted before. It will be a Religious "Western" with Jewish cowboys as the good guys. A real showdown between good and evil.

EXCLUSIVE: It’s a project that will have everybody in Hollywood and beyond talking. I’ve learned that Warner Bros has set up an untitled drama that teams Gibson and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas on the telling of the heroic story of Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee. Eszterhas will write the script, and I understand that Gibson will collaborate with him. Maccabee teamed with his father and four brothers to lead the Jewish revolt against the Greek-Syrian armies that had conquered Judea in the second century B.C. Gibson has the first option to direct but will definitely produce the film through his Icon Productions banner. It’s understandable why Warner Bros would want to be back in business with Gibson, who was once a high-profile fixture there and who made a fortune for that studio with the Lethal Weapon series and other films.

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