I thought this was an April Fools spoof until I realized today is May 13th.
Mel Gibson – who was seemingly trying to undo the perception that he is a raving antisemite (he had reportedly been donating to a charity that helps Holocaust survivors) – has decided in his infinite wisdom that he should star in a movie about the Rothchilds!
Jon S. Baird, who helmed recent hit ‘Stan & Ollie,’ directs, with HanWay repping international sales.
Cannes is looking like a particularly busy market for Mel Gibson.The actor’s latest project and his third hitting the Croisette — Rothchild — will see him star alongside Shia LaBeouf, with Jon S. Baird (Stan & Ollie) in the director’s chair.
The black comedy will center on Becket Rothchild (Shia LaBeouf) — the bastard child of a mother, who in eloping with a jazz musician was cast out from the Rothchild family and its vast fortune — who was never given a fair lot in life. All grown up and armed with charisma, intelligence and a flair for opportunity, it does not take long for Becket to fully grasp the immense gap between his situation and the richest 1 percent, which should be his birthright. He has a plan.
There are precisely nine Rothchild family members who stand between him and his fortune, including Whitelaw (Gibson), his sinister grandfather. How hard could it be for them each to meet with an “accident”? With the unique advantage of being unknown to any of them, Becket penetrates the weird and twisted lives of his super-rich kin amongst frat boys, hipster artists and reality TV stars. The only thing that threatens to get in the way is love, both old and new.
Granted, this movie is about the Rothchilds, not the Rothschilds, a real-life Jewish banking dynasty that is often the center of antisemitic conspiracy theories involving them being behind all sorts of nefarious things (like controlling the weather). But are we really supposed to not think this is who the movie is about? And Gibson is playing a sinister member of the family no less.
I am guessing Mel feels untouchable in Hollywood once again, after some recent success following years in the wilderness.
