There was a time when the Judah Maccabee project (AKA the Jewish Braveheart) that Joe Eszterhas was penning for Mel Gibson seemed only modestly distasteful given Gibson’s notorious penchant for making anti-Semitic remarks. Then Eszterhas turned in his script, Warner Bros. put the project on hold, and the real dramatic bloodbath began. Last night, Eszterhas penned a nine-page letter excoriating Gibson for ignoring his draft, accusing him of never intending to make the film in the first place and detailing a series of lurid, bigoted outbursts he and his family allegedly witnessed Gibson making during their collaboration — a letter leaked to The Wrap and available in all of its bone-chilling glory, naturally.
In his letter Eszterhas claims to have witnessed numerous offenses during his time collaborating with Gibson, whom he insists never intended to actually make the Maccabee movie. Rather, the screenwriter claims, Gibson used the project as a means of doing damage control on his sullied public image, all the while still using anti-Semitic slurs and violent hate speech around Eszterhas and his family during visits and meetings.
Below, choice snippets from Eszterhas’s memo (read the full letter here). First came Eszterhas’s accusation of professional and personal misconduct …
“I’ve come to the conclusion that you never had, or have, any intention of making a film about the Maccabees… I’ve come to the conclusion that you’ve used me. More exactly, you used my credentials.”
And next, accusations of Gibson using unfortunate Jewish slurs…
Let me remind you of some of the things you said which appalled me. You continually called Jews “Hebes” and “oven-dodgers” and “Jewboys.” It seemed that most times when we discussed someone you asked,
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Now that Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin has made its world premiere and his Christmas drama War Horse is already garnering Oscar buzz, the director is free to plan his next epic directorial project. According to Deadline, the filmmaker is considering getting biblical with Warner Bros. for Gods and Kings, a gargantuan film that will chronicle Moses’s entire life. Are you interested in Spielberg’s take on the Old Testament?
The project, based on a sweeping script from Michael Green (who created Spielberg’s upcoming television series The River) and Stuart Hazeldine (Paradise Lost), will encompass the biblical figure’s life, chronicling the Jews’ emancipation from Egypt, the Burning Bush and the Ten Commandments. While Spielberg has reportedly not had any formal meetings with Warner Bros., he is interested in overseeing Gods and Kings.
Of course, with a filmmaker as busy as Spielberg, the issue is not interest but availability. Currently, Spielberg is filming his political biopic Lincoln, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president of the United States. Next up, the director is slated to tackle the robot apocalypse feature, aptly titled Robopocalypse. He is also attached to a variety of other projects in executive producer capacity including Men In Black III and Jurassic Park IV as well as television projects Terra Nova, Smash and The Talisman.
If Gods and Kings comes to fruition, it could be our generation’s The Ten Commandments. And if it doesn’t, we may just have to leave the Old Testament adaptations to Mel Gibson, who has teamed up with Warner Bros. to develop a film about Judah Maccabee. Whose Old Testament retelling would you be more interested in seeing? (Jewish leaders, we already know your answer.)
· Warner Bros Goes To The Mountaintop For Moses Epic [Deadline]
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Happy Friday! Also in today’s edition of The Broadsheet: Catherine Zeta-Jones is getting Broken… The Bible is hot in Hollywood!… The only Akira takedown you’ll ever need… and more.
· If you held any vestige of doubt that Tim Burton has attained institutional status in America, let it now be banished: The filmmaker has accepted Macy’s invitation to design a balloon for this year’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. What does he have planned? What else? A character named B. Boy, who, according The NY Times, “was created, Frankenstein’s monster-style, from the leftover balloons used in children’s parties at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Forbidden from playing with other children because of his jagged teeth and crazy-quilt stitching, B. retreated to a basement lair, where he obsesses over Albert Lamorisse’s film The Red Balloon and dreams that he, too, will be able to fly someday.” Festive! Kleenex, please. (Click photo for bigger image.) [NYT]
· Catherine Zeta-Jones has joined the cast of Broken City, in which she’ll appear as the philandering wife of a New York mayor (Russell Crowe). A detective played by Mark Wahlberg investigates, someone dies, things go sideways… the usual. Allen Hughes directs. [Deadline]
· “Are Moses, Noah and Judah Maccabee the next Bella, Batman and Harry Potter?” Great question! By which I mean, shut the fuck up. [THR]
· “Akira is about a terrible, unstoppable, cataclysmic force; half-baked plans for an ill-conceived remake are not dissimilar.” And critic Ben Child’s knife goes deeper, and deeper still. Blistering stuff. [The Guardian]
· Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained hasn’t even started filming yet, but here come the philosophical comparisons to Inglourious Basterds: “I don’t actually hunger for…
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That was fast: “Mel Gibson has shown nothing but antagonism and disrespect to Jews. […] Casting him as a director or perhaps as the star of Judah Maccabee is like casting Madoff to be the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or a white supremacist as trying to portray Martin Luther King Jr. It’s simply an insult to Jews.” [THR]
This just in from sister site Deadline: Warner Bros. is developing a Joe Eszterhas-penned project about the tale of warrior-hero Judah Maccabee, who led a second-century revolt against Hellenistic overlords in the name of the Jewish people. The project’s producer and possible director? Mel Gibson.
On the one hand, Gibson’s a proven period and action director, as films like Apocalypto, The Passion of the Christ, and Braveheart attest. On the other… well, you know. Either way, Gibson needs something big after the massive spanking The Beaver received upon release.
More from Deadline:
Having put some painful personal issues behind him, Gibson is determined to get back to making movies. He has long wanted to make this film about heroic Jews, and it was discussed even when he was under fire after his drunken anti-Semitic rant during a 2006 Malibu arrest. Maccabee’s triumph and struggle against tyranny and oppression where people gave their lives so that others would be free to worship is celebrated by Jews all over the world through Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. This subject matter is a decided departure for the filmmaker famous for directing The Passion of the Christ. But in a way the subject matter is in his wheelhouse: Maccabee is a close cousin to William Wallace, leader of the Scottish rebellion against the British in Braveheart, the film that brought Gibson two Oscars: for Best Picture and Best Director.
• SHOCKER! Mel Gibson And Joe Eszterhas To Collaborate On Film Telling Jewish Hero Judah Maccabee Story For Warner Bros [Deadline]
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