Screenwriter tells Mel Gibson film canned because he's a 'Jew-hater'

MEL Gibson's planned feature about "the Jewish braveheart" has been put on hold by Warner Bros.

MEL Gibson's planned feature about "the Jewish braveheart" has been put on hold by Warner Bros in a decision the film's screenwriter has blamed on the actor and director's anti-Semitism.

Gibson's would-be collaborator, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, has reportedly claimed in a letter to the Mad Max star that the film house's decision to shelve the historical drama about Judah Maccabee was due to the fact that "you hate Jews".

Eszterhas, in a nine-page letter published last night on a Hollywood gossip site, claimed Gibson was a Holocaust denier who commonly used derogatory terms to refer to Jews.

A Warner Bros spokesman said the studio was "analysing what to do with the project".

Gibson's potential involvement in the film had stirred emotions in the Jewish community. The Anti-Defamation League said it would be "a travesty to have the story of the Maccabees told by one who has no respect and sensitivity for other people's religious views".

Maccabee, whose life as a warrior is celebrated as part of Hannukah, is held up as one of the great heroes of Judaism.

Eszterhas claims that Gibson's decision to promote the film as being about "the Jewish Braveheart" was an attempt "to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism which have dogged you, charges which have crippled your career".

In 2006, Gibson went on an anti-Semitic tirade after being arrested for drink-driving, and was criticised for his 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which Jews say depicted them poorly.