Mel Gibson To Collaborate On Film About Judah Maccabee

[megimoo]

EXCLUSIVE: It’s a project that will have everybody in Hollywood and beyond talking about. I’ve learned that Warner Bros has set up an untitled drama that teams Gibson and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas on the telling of the heroic story of Eszterhas will write the script and I understand that Gibson will collaborate with him.

Judah Maccabee, the Jewish warrior who teamed with his father and four brothers to lead the Jewish revolt against the Greek-Syrian armies that had conquered Judea in the second century B.C. .....

Gibson has the first option to direct but will definitely produce the film through his Icon Productions banner. It’s understandable why Warner Bros would want to be back in business with Gibson, who was once a high-profile fixture there and who made a fortune for that studio with the Lethal Weapon series and other films.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/09/shoc...r-warner-bros/

[Bubba Dawg]

I'd like to see it if it is done well.

[megimoo]

I'd like to see it if it is done well.

He did an excellent portrayal of what Jesus suffered during his passions
in his film of The Passion Of The Christ .The shock of Romans brutality
and the total lack of any compassion for an known innocent man..

[Bubba Dawg]

He did an excellent portrayal of what Jesus suffered during his passions
in his film of The Passion Of The Christ .The shock of Romans brutality
and the total lack of any compassion for an known innocent man..

True. This is a good topic for a film. I don't recall ever seeing a movie based on the Maccabean Revolt.

[megimoo]

True. This is a good topic for a film. I don't recall ever seeing a movie based on the Maccabean Revolt.

JUDAH MACCABEE
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...1_0_10448.html

[noonwitch]

True. This is a good topic for a film. I don't recall ever seeing a movie based on the Maccabean Revolt.

I agree. We need new stories (or in this case, unfamiliar stories) for our movies. I'm sick of the whole trend of making classic tv shows into movies.


Plus, we have hundreds of Christmas movies. The Jews have one Adam Sandler cartoon movie for Hannukah. They deserve better than that.

[Bubba Dawg]

I agree. We need new stories (or in this case, unfamiliar stories) for our movies. I'm sick of the whole trend of making classic tv shows into movies.


Plus, we have hundreds of Christmas movies. The Jews have one Adam Sandler cartoon movie for Hannukah. They deserve better than that.

They also have Sandy Koufax.

[Hawkgirl]

He did an excellent portrayal of what Jesus suffered during his passions
in his film of The Passion Of The Christ .The shock of Romans brutality
and the total lack of any compassion for an known innocent man..

Those beatings made me queasy...I had to fast forward...:(

[Elspeth]

It may not be so unusual for a Catholic to do a film on the Maccabees. The Catholic Bible, unlike most Protestant versions, contains both books of Maccabees (1 and 2). (The Orthodox version contains 4 books of Maccabees.) For Catholics, these books are holy writ and traditional Catholics know them.

The time of Jesus arrived as the Romans took over a disintegrating Maccabee dynasty. The story goes that Aristobulus and his brother John Hyrcanus were the two last Maccabee heirs and they stood diametrically opposed to each other on matters of religion and state. Aristobulus might have taken his brother down with the army, but Pompey brought the Roman army to intervene. (Jewish historian Josephus claims that the Romans were asked in by John Hyrcanus.) The Maccabee kingdom begins and ends with a Judas: Judas Maccabee fights and defeats the weakening Seleucid Greek oppressors, and Judus of Gamala/Galillee revolts in vain against the Roman census at the death of Herod the Great (Rome's puppet ruler from Idumea/Edom) in 4 B.C.

http://latter-rain.com/ltrain/judasm.htm

It's almost impossible to understand the desperation of the Jewish people under Rome without understanding the loss of their kingdom and self rule under the Maccabees and the replacement of their rightful kings with foreign Roman puppets who were not Jewish. There is much connection between Maccabees and the century that ushered in Jesus, and perhaps MEl Gibson understands this as a devout Catholic.

[djones520]

Those beatings made me queasy...I had to fast forward...:(

My girlfriend and I saw it in a theatre, so we didn't have the luxury. She was in tears throughout that portion of the movie.


I'm glad that Gibson is doing this though. He has done an amazing job on epic movies like this.