Why Mel Gibson is making a Judah Maccabee movie

After hearing that Mel Gibson is working on a movie about Judah Maccabee, a famous Jewish hero whose victories brought about Hanukkah, it was easy to assume that Gibson was doing it as some form of reconciliation for his anti-Semitic remarks.

If sources close to TMZ are to believed, however, that’s not true. The sources claim that Gibson is not doing it as a form of reconciliation because he doesn’t hate Jewish people to begin with. The sources point to the fact that Gibson’s publicist is Jewish, his lawyers are Jewish, and he has “many” Jewish friends.

So why, then, is Gibson working on the movie? According to the sources, Gibson has been wanting to work on the film for “decades”. He believes that telling the story of Maccabee will bring to light corruption in the modern church and, as a result, force change.

Many still remain critical over Gibson being tied to the movie, however. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles is one such critic. He told CNN:

“I think it’s, quite frankly, preposterous,” he said. “Judah Maccabee is one of the greatest heroes in Jewish history. Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite. He has made anti-Semitic remarks in the past. I don’t know what Warner Bros. was thinking.”

Representative of Gibson responded to the comments, pointing out that there are no plans for Gibson to be starring in the film in any capacity – only directing.