OLIVIA MARNE
Warner Bros has gone cold on Mel Gibson’s Judah Maccabee project, written by “Basic Instinct” scribe Joe Eszterhas.
The film, which received heat from the get-go, would’ve told of the Jewish Maccabee revolt in the 2nd Century B.C; Maccabee’s victory over Greek and Syrian armies is celebrated at Hanukkah. As one would expect, some groups weren’t too keen on the idea of Gibson directing such a movie.
Gibson says in a email to The Wrap that the reason the film has been put on hold is because of a shitty script.
The “Lethal Weapon” star says the blame lies squarely with the screenwriter, who failed to write a good, accurate screenplay. In an email to Eszterhas, who handed his draft into the studio in February, Gibson said : “Both Warner Brothers and I were extraordinarily disappointed with the draft. In 25 years of script development I have never seen a more substandard first draft or a more significant waste of time. The decision not to proceed with you was based on the quality of your script, not on any other factor.” Ouch!
Why would Gibson trust Eszterhas, the man behind soft-porn thrillers like “Showgirls”, “Basic Instinct” and “Jade”, to write such a movie anyway!?
