Mel Gibson - Future Films

Future Films

In March 2007, Gibson told a screening audience that he was preparing another script with Farhad Safinia about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Gibson's company has long owned the rights to The Professor and the Madman, which tells the story of the creation of the OED.

Gibson has dismissed the rumors that he is considering directing a film about Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa. Asked in September 2007 if he planned to return to acting and specifically to action roles, Gibson said: "I think I’m too old for that, but you never know. I just like telling stories. Entertainment is valid and I guess I’ll probably do it again before it's over. You know, do something that people won’t get mad with me for."

In 2005, the film Sam and George was announced as the seventh collaboration between director Richard Donner and Gibson. In February 2009, Donner said that this Paramount project was "dead," but that he and Gibson were planning another film based on an original script by Brian Helgeland for production in fall 2009.

He has also expressed an intention to direct a movie set during the Viking Age, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The as-yet untitled film, like The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto, will feature dialogue in period languages. However, DiCaprio ultimately opted out of the project. In a 2012 interview, Gibson announced that the project, which he has titled Berserker, was still moving forward.

In 2011, it was announced that Gibson had commissioned a screenplay from Joe Eszterhas about the Maccabees. The film is to be distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures. The announcement generated significant controversy. In April 2012, Eszterhas wrote a letter to Gibson accusing him of sabotaging their movie about the Maccabees because he "hates Jews", and citing a series of private incidents during which he allegedly heard Gibson express extremely racist views. Although written as a private letter, it was subsequently published on a film industry website. In response, however, Gibson stated that he still intends to make the movie, but will not base it upon Eszterhas' script, which he called substandard.

In a 2012 interview, Gibson explained that the Maccabees film was still in preparation. He explained he was drawn to the Biblical account the uprising due to its similarity to the Western genre.