Posted on 12/06/2005 4:00:37 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
Mel Gibson, whose "The Passion of the Christ" was assailed by critics as an anti-Semitic passion play - and whose father has been on record as a Holocaust denier - has a new project under way: a nonfiction miniseries about the Holocaust.
Mr. Gibson's television production company is developing a four-hour miniseries for ABC based on the self-published memoir of Flory A. Van Beek, a Dutch Jew whose gentile neighbors hid her from the Nazis but who lost several relatives in concentration camps.
It is not expected that Mr. Gibson will act in the miniseries, nor is it certain yet that his name, rather than his company's, will be publicly attached to the final product, according to several people involved in developing it. Nor is it guaranteed yet that the project will be completed and broadcast.
But Quinn Taylor, ABC's senior vice president in charge of movies for television, acknowledged that the attention-getting value of having Mr. Gibson attached to a Holocaust project was a factor.
"Controversy's publicity, and vice versa," Mr. Taylor said.
ABC brought in Mr. Gibson's company, Con Artists Productions, after an independent producer, Daniel Sladek, pitched the network on Ms. Van Beek's story. With her husband, Felix, Ms. Van Beek survived the sinking of a passenger ship by a German mine, followed by three years in hiding during the German occupation of Holland, before emigrating to the United States in 1948.
The network chose Mr. Gibson's company when it learned of Ms. Van Beek's tale shortly after ABC had rejected a separate pitch by Con Artists' president, Nancy Cotton, for another Holocaust-related subject, Mr. Taylor said.
"This has the middle, the love story, that the other one didn't have," he explained.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bet it'll be bloody!
The Patriot meets Auschvitz.
It is not expected that Mr. Gibson will act in the miniseries, nor is it certain yet that his name, rather than his company's, will be publicly attached to the final product, according to several people involved in developing it. Nor is it guaranteed yet that the project will be completed and broadcast.
IOW....We Don't Know Sh** From Shineola. We don't care! We're the Times! We don't have to!
I'll bet it'll get network exec's scratchin' their collective asses again wondering how he can be such a success at something that they fail at miserably.
Does Frank Rich approve? ;')
Wasn't there a rumor that Gibson was going to do a movie based on the Maccabees ? Now THAT would be great.
Of course the MSM will spin this as Gibson somehow "apologizing" to the Jews for TPOTC. No apology of any sort is owed.
check out the drudge report. Pic of gibson looks suprisingly like Saddam with the gray streak in his beard.
Ping.
What is the deal with Mel and that beard?
Don't know, but if his eyes were a bit different, he would be a perfect stand in for Saddam.
Actually that would be Sorbibor.
Brrr...
I get that same feeling whenever I look at that beard!
I hope Santa drops one of these in his Christmas stocking:
I get that same feeling whenever I look at that beard!
LOL, I had the same impression when I saw that pic, yikes. He doesn't look good.
On the other hand, I have the feeling that Abe Foxman will be praising Mel's outstanding work.
LOL, you forgot the /s didn't you?
LOL!!!
Santa and razors?
Ain't gonna happen... heck they may just go down to the local neighborhood pub, quaff a few eggnogs, and share stories about beards.
I think it will be a touching and interesting story-especially since its suppose to come from REAL LIFE---get it on MEL !
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