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Hollywood Spin
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Passion Play
Determined to prevent the furor over his religious film The Passion from spiraling out of control, director Mel Gibson takes the gloves off in the wake of a personal apology from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
By Richard Horgan
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In today’s world of closely guarded celebrity interviews, where access to top clients is often granted by publicists only if certain conditions are met, the March 9th Sunday New York Times Magazine piece about Mel Gibson by Los Angeles freelance writer Christopher Noxon was a noteworthy and far reaching exception.
Not since Tom Junod’s 1997 Esquire Magazine article questioning Kevin Spacey’s sexuality has there been this much fallout over a magazine profile of a Hollywood celebrity. What’s more, the author managed to do it without a single quote from Gibson himself.
The article painted a vivid picture of the actor/director’s traditionalist Catholic faith by outlining his funding of a new church in Malibu, the controversial comments of his father Hutton Gibson and Gibson’s unrelenting commitment to The Passion, a $27 million movie about the last twelve hours of the life of Christ that the Australian native is personally underwriting.
In its wake, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops requested a copy of the script for review purposes and was turned down. Nevertheless, several members of the organization were able to obtain an early draft of the screenplay for The Passion and promptly decreed in a letter to Gibson’s production company, Icon Productions, that they feared the movie would be both anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic.
The Conference of Catholic Bishops has since apologized for the renegade conduct of its members and pledged to return all unauthorized copies of the script that they had obtained.
At the same time, Abraham Foxman, president of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote Gibson a letter expressing concerns that Jews would be portrayed in a negative way in the film, although this presumption was based mostly on guilt by association with the controversial comments in the article of Gibson’s father, Hutton, who suggested for example that the Holocaust never took place.
Faced with the threat of his film being drowned out by the stigma of controversy, Gibson finally chose to speak out for the first time through comments published in the trade publication Daily Variety on Thursday, June 12th. Gibson stated in part that Jews “are my friends and associates, both in my work and social life. Thankfully, treasured friendships forged over decades are not easily shaken by nasty innuendo. Anti-Semitism is not only contrary to my personal beliefs, it is also contrary to the core message of my movie."
| Unlike Martin Scorsese, who had the benefit of Universal Pictures’ support on The Last Temptation Of Christ, Gibson has yet to find a distributor for his planned 2004 spring release of The Passion. Although there is nothing as revisionist as the sexually charged dream sequence in Scorsese’s 1988 film, Gibson’s graphic depiction of the crucifixion will unfold on screen in dead languages of Latin and Aramaic without the benefit of English subtitles.
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In other words, it’s a tough sell even without the added burden of premature public scrutiny. Although the specter of The Last Temptation Of Christ no doubt hangs heavy in Gibson’s thoughts – Chile only just lifted a Supreme Court ban on the movie this spring and a documentary about a video store that was destroyed for stocking the movie is going before the cameras this fall – Gibson must have felt that the escalating attacks on his movie could threaten the very chance of finding a distributor.
Still, it’s rare for a star of Gibson’s stature to breach the usual protocol of Hollywood public relations. In this case, his high-powered Rogers & Cowan representative, Alan Nierob, is nowhere to be found. Instead, it’s Mel belatedly taking on all comers. There were even reports that Gibson was threatening to sue both the Anti-Defamation League and the Conference of Bishops.
| Ultimately, Gibson’s problems may not end when he finds a distributor. Although many leaders of organized religion felt that their calls of a boycott against The Last Temptation Of Christ ended up serving more as free publicity for the film than anything else, Scorsese’s film made a paltry $9 million at the U.S. box office.
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Instead of going it alone on this one, perhaps Mel should have followed another example set by Scorsese, who was able to get Universal to come on board with The Last Temptation Of Christ by promising to do a more commercial film for them later (which turned out to be Cape Fear).
With the start of production on Mad Max 4: Fury Road recently pushed back because of a conflict with director George Miller’s schedule, perhaps Gibson should return to the negotiating table and convince either 20th Century Fox or Universal to do a similar tit for tat deal with The Passion. It seems foolhardy for Gibson not to leverage the considerable power he has accumulated as an A-list Hollywood star to maximize the chances of his passion project.
| By lashing out at critics of The Passion in Daily Variety, a publication that is faithfully scanned by his Hollywood peers, and making it clear that he now considers the attacks of a personal nature, Gibson has cleverly seized the opportunity to deliver a subtle message to the industry. Namely, that he will consider a distribution deal for the movie as a personal vote of confidence.
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In fact, it wouldn’t be too surprising if Gibson’s tactics lead the announcement of just such a deal in the near future. And based on his two previous directorial efforts, Braveheart and The Man Without A Face, he may not be too far off base with his previous suggestion in Time Magazine that The Passion will have the impact of a great silent movie, Aramaic and Latin dialogue notwithstanding.
[Every Wednesday, Hollywood Spin takes a look at issues relating to the Hollywood publicity machine. To reach the author, please email rhorgan@filmstew.com. Meanwhile, to comment on this week’s topic, please go to our Hollywood Spin Discussion Board.]
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