Gibson's "Passion" finds distributor!

[Selznak]

I'm glad to see this, although I was confident that Gibson would eventually find someone to distribute the movie!


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=3671014

Reports: Gibson's 'Passion' Film Finds Distributor
Wed October 22, 2003 08:18 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mel Gibson will distribute his controversial new film about the crucifixion, "The Passion of Christ," in the United States through an independent company, Newmarket Films, rather than through a major studio, according to published reports on Wednesday.


For months, Gibson has taken heat from some Jewish groups who claim the film is anti-Semitic, while several Christian groups have hailed it.

Spokesmen for Newmarket and Gibson declined to comment on stories in the Las Angeles Times and Daily Variety.

Since Gibson is a major star and Oscar winner for epic "Braveheart," many in Hollywood thought he would seek a major studio to distribute his film.

Big Hollywood studios, however, tend to shy away from controversial topics, leaving them to the indies. Newmarket has made hits from such movies as crime thriller "Memento," a movie told backwards, and Mexico's "Y Tu Mama Tambien," which raised some eyebrows in Hollywood for its sexual content.

Gibson's movie, which was originally titled "The Passion," has been viewed as anti-Semitic for its portrayal of Jewish officials and angry Jewish mobs as being the ones responsible for the crucifixion of Christ, who is played by Jim Caviezel.

Gibson, a devout Catholic, directed the movie and his company Icon Productions made it. Gibson reportedly paid $20 million to $25 million of his own money to make it. He has defended "Passion" in the past and denied that the film is anti-Semitic.

Icon has been holding private screenings for religious groups to obtain feedback on the movie before it is released.

If Gibson and Newmarket were to reach an agreement, the movie could be ready for theaters around the start of Lent in 2004, according to Daily Variety. Gibson's "Passion" is not the first Hollywood movie to wade into the waters of religious controversy. In 1988, director Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ" found itself in hot water among religious groups who picketed outside theaters and its distributor Universal Pictures.