Free Republic

Anyone who took offense at Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ", with its depiction of Jewish leaders condemning Jesus, should get ready soon to be offended all over again. Gibson, it is reported, has his heart set on doing a movie version of the story commemorated by Hanukkah. His text will be the novel "My Glorious Brothers" by Howard Fast. Ironically, this book is a sentimental favorite with the older-generation Jewish audience that also tends to be the main financial supporter of Gibson’s primary antagonist, the Anti-Defamation League, which led the drive to condemn "The Passion" as anti-Semitic. The...

Despite shattering box-office records and dominating headlines for months, "The Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" face real obstacles in the race for an Oscar nomination for best picture. As Senior Writer Sean Smith reports in the current issue of Newsweek, many of the high-placed studio executives, producers, Oscar strategists, publicists and Academy members interviewed think that "Fahrenheit's" chances depend on the results of the presidential election, and all say that a "Passion" best-picture nod is almost unthinkable. "A lot of older Academy voters, who are largely Jewish, refuse to even see this movie," says one Oscar-campaign vet. "There's...

From the man who brought us "The Passion of the Christ" comes "Paparazzi," a cheeseball revenge thriller with an alarmingly twisted moral. According to this Mel Gibson-produced late-summer offering, released without screening for critics, it's OK to murder celebrity photographers because they're amoral bottom-feeders. Forget about turning the other cheek; these unshaven, bourbon-swigging "parasites" — who, in the view of "Paparazzi," all look and behave like dirty buccaneers — apparently deserve to die. The "Death Wish" premise is almost as extreme as the acting. Squandering a chance to thoughtfully examine the repercussions of society's obsession with Hollywood lives, first-time feature...

Controversial director Michael Moore claims Mel Gibson backed out of financing his hit documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 after Republican sources told the actor he would never be invited to the White House again. The explosive Palme D'Or-winning documentary, which examines American President George W Bush's decisions following the September 11 attacks and the run-up to the war in Iraq, was rejected by their original financier Icon, owned by Gibson. Moore says, "We were just starting the film when I got a call from my agent who said he'd spoken to someone at Icon who was wondering if there was a way...

... five months after the film's debut, the prophecies have yet to materialize. [snip]...Paula Fredriksen, a Boston University professor who was one of the film's earliest foes, said: "When violence breaks out, Mel Gibson will have a much higher authority than professors and bishops to answer to." So far, however, "nothing has happened," says J. Shawn Landres, a University of Judaism professor who co-edited an upcoming book on the movie's impact, "After the Passion Is Gone." Fredriksen remains unapologetic, saying Gibson supporters have "redefined anti-Semitic violence" to exclude anything less than "dead bodies strewn everywhere." As Fredriksen sees it, even...

ASHLAND, Ore. – Whooping and hollering greeted Michael Moore's statement that his virulently anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit 9/11" beat out Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." "I think Jesus had something to do with that," said Moore during Monday's meeting at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Ore., part of a national event sponsored by MoveOn.org. Comparing the initial attendance stats for the two films – and accentuating the one or two measures by which, says Moore, "Fahrenheit" edged out "Passion" – Moore boasted: "I've been feeling for a month He's been very upset at the [selling of] that movie. So...

Guess they hoped to find an audience with this turkey ... $2.5 million over 589 theaters is about $4244 per theater if my math is correct ... Maybe they would find a bigger audience in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan ...

<p>IF you're looking for an animated alternative to Mel Gibson's gruesome gorefest "The Passion of the Christ" when the DVD comes out on Aug. 31, the folks behind "South Park" have just the thing.</p> <p>Comedy Central is releasing a special three-episode "South Park" DVD with a religious theme to coincide with Gibson's flick hitting stores. The DVD includes this season's already classic "The Passion of the Jew" as well as old favorites "Red Hot Catholic Love" and "Christian Hard Rock."</p>

Mel Gibson: Arab world messiah "The Passion" sells out theaters, spreads through $1 bootlegs, and fuels more claims of Jewish villainy. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Michelle Goldberg April 6, 2004 | AMMAN, Jordan -- Mel Gibson's "The Passion" has been playing on four screens at the Mecca Mall here for nearly three weeks, but the front desk employee at my hotel still suggested that I get to the theater an hour early to buy tickets for a Sunday evening show. She had seen it the night before in a sold-out theater...

<p>The Passion Of The Christ is a pointless and sick film. It has been mired in controversy ever since devout Catholic Mel Gibson first announced that he was making a movie about Jesus Christ?s Crucifixion. At first the project seemed praiseworthy: unknown actors were to be cast (instead of buff starlets with impossibly perfect teeth), the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were to be consulted and the dialogue was to be rendered in Aramaic and Latin.</p>

'THE PASSION' UNLEASED'Protection squad'for Gibson's JesusSecurity detail hired for James Caviezel as execs think movie's main stars targeted Posted: March 8, 20045:00 p.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com James Caviezel, who plays Jesus in Mel Gibson's blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," has reportedly been assigned a security detail to protect him. Jim Caviezel portrays Jesus in 'The Passion of The Christ' (courtesy Icon Distribution) "There are some crazy people out there and everything is being done to protect Mel and Jim from physical attack," a source close to executives of Newmarket Films told the London Express. The paper said Caviezel, a devout...

NEW BRITAIN -- A local woman with psychological problems purposely drove her car into the water at A.W. Stanley Quarter Park in an attempt to re-enact a scene from the blockbuster film, "The Passion of the Christ," police said.