‘You hate Jews’, Eszterhas tells Mel Gibson

After the announcement, the film’s screenwriter, Joe Eszterhas, wrote a damning letter to the actor director Mel Gibson, who had been scheduled to direct the picture.

In the nine-page letter, Eszterhas accuses Gibson of using the film “to deflect continuing charges of anti-semitism which have dogged you, charges which have crippled your career”.

Eszterhas writes: “I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason you won’t make The Maccabees is the ugliest possible one. You hate Jews.”

According to Eszterhas, Gibson used anti-semitic language and claimed the Holocaust was “mostly a lot of horseshit”.

Eszterhas also portrays Gibson as a man who has lost control. He describes him as “raving” and “wild, crazed and explosive”, outlining his threats to kill ex-girlfriend Oksana Gregorieva, the mother of his child.

The letter was published by film industry website The Wrap. On Wednesday Gibson responded on the blog Deadline, arguing the screenwriter’s accusations were “utter fabrications”.

Gibson says that Eszterhas’s attack arose only after Warner Brothers rejected his script: “I would have thought that a man of principle, as you purport to be, would have withdrawn from the project regardless of the money if you truly believed me to be the person you describe in your letter.”