I know if I was a studio in need of a good old fashioned warrior epic featuring a Jewish hero, the guy I'd turn to is Mel Gibson. Say wha!??! Oh I'm sorry. I thought Gibson was the guy who made an entire movie about how the Jews killed Jesus or something. Believe it or not it's true, with Variety reporting that Gibson is teaming up with Warner Brothers on a film about Judah Maccabeus, the Jewish warrior whose accomplishments are celebrated during Hanukah.
Joe Eszterhas(Showgirls
) will write the script, with Gibson producing the film through his Icon Productions. The word is that Gibson will decide on whether to direct depending on the script, and may even act in the film as well. Will he have a Snidely Whiplash mustache and wear a black suit? Otherwise I smell the beginnings of a serious boycott on this thing. Maccabeus(or Maccabee) is considered one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history, having helped lead the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. Hanukah celebrates the restoration of Jewish worship at the temple in Jerusalem after Maccabee removed the pagan statuary. Maccabee has been a figure Gibson has wanted to make a film about for years, once considering tackling it immediately following The Passion of the Christ
.Nobody's going to forget Gibson's...umm...controversial run-ins with religion over the last few years. On more than one occasion he's gone off on drunken, anti-Semitic tirades. The net effect was him basically being ostracized in Hollywood, but he has openly apologized for his rhetoric. In the last couple of years he's been working his way back into the film scene, first with the thriller Edge of Darkness
and most recently in Jodie Foster's dark comedy, The Beaver
. If Gibson had brought all that trouble on himself, nobody would bat an eye at this news. On paper it seems like it fits perfectly in his wheelhouse, a big budget, bloody historical war film like Braveheart
. But I sense trouble around the corner for this film once it really starts to gear up.
