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| Edited By: |Source: ANI |Updated: Apr 12, 2012, 10:03 PM IST
Mel Gibson has slammed the accusations of Maccabees screenwriter Joe Eszterhas that he is anti-Semitic and insists that the real issue for plugging the plug on the movie was that the script was “terrible”.
The Braveheart director, responded to Eszterhas allegation in a letter which says that most of the charges being made by the writer was fabricated.
“I will say that the great majority of the facts as well as the statements and actions attributed to me in your letter are utter fabrications,” TMZ quoted Gibson as writing in the letter.
The 56-year-old acknowledged that he recently lost his cool with him during a conversation about the movie.
“I did react more strongly than I should have.
“I promptly sent you a written apology, the colourful words of which you apparently now find offensive. Let me now clearly apologise to you and your family in the simplest of terms,” he said.
The acclaimed actor, then proceeds to give vent to his frustrations with Eszterhas’ writing.
“Not only was the script delivered later than you promised, 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.”
In his letter, Gibson never specifically addresses Eszterhas’ claim that he “hates Jews” or made anti-Semitic statements.
Gibson also addressed Eszterhas’ claim that he wanted to get back in the good graces of the Jews.
“Contrary to your assertion that I was only developing Maccabees to burnish my tarnished reputation, I have been working on this project for over 10 years and it was publicly announced 8 years ago,” Gibson said.
“I think that we can agree that this should be our last communication,” he ended his letter.
Earlier, Eszterhas had claimed that Gibson was sabotaging efforts to make a movie about Jewish biblical hero Judah Maccabee because he “hates Jews”.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason you won’t make The Maccabees is the ugliest possible one. You hate Jews,” Eszterhas said.
The letter has been obtained by TheWrap.com.
“You continually called Jews ‘Hebes’ and ‘oven-dodgers’ and ‘Jewboys.’ It seemed that most times when we discussed someone, you asked ‘He’s a Hebe, isn’t he?’ You said most ‘gatekeepers’ of American companies were ‘Hebes’ who ‘controlled their bosses’,” the letter said.
“You said the Holocaust was ‘mostly a lot of horses**t.’ You said the Torah made reference to the sacrifice of Christian babies and infants. When I told you that you were confusing the Torah with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, ... you insisted ‘it’s in the Torah -- it’s in there!’ (It isn’t),” Eszterhas wrote.
He further claimed that the only reason Gibson wanted to make The Maccabees so he could “convert the Jews to Christianity.”
In his letter, Eszterhas says he witnessed the actor rail about his ex-GF and baby mama Oksana Grigorieva ... saying, “You were raving at Oksana even after you’d reached a custody agreement over Luci.”
