Gibson developing TV miniseries about the Holocaust

Mel Gibson is reported to be developing a TV miniseries about the Holocaust. If he purses this with as much enthusiasm as he did "The Passion of the Christ", we are in for a treat.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Mel Gibson is stirring passions again with his latest project -- a nonfiction TV movie set against the backdrop of the Holocaust.
Gibson's Con Artist Productions is developing ''Flory'' for ABC, based on the true story of a Dutch Jew named Flory Van Beek and her non-Jewish boyfriend who sheltered her from the Nazis, The New York Times and Variety reported in Wednesday editions.
Critics claimed Gibson's blockbuster film ''Passion of the Christ'' was anti-Semitic, a charge Gibson has denied. Gibson's father also is on the record denying that the Holocaust took place.
''For (Gibson) to be associated with this movie is cause for concern,'' Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Melrose Park, Pa., told the Times. ''He needs to come clean that he repudiates Holocaust denial.''
Gibson was in Mexico working on his upcoming film ''Apocalypto'' and couldn't be reached for comment.
Quinn Taylor, ABC's senior vice president in charge of television movies, had a harsh reply for early critics.
''Shut up and wait to see the movie, and then judge,'' Taylor, who oversaw ABC's Emmy-winning miniseries ''Anne Frank,'' told Variety. ''I'm not about to rewrite history. I'm going to explore an amazing love story that we can all learn from and, hopefully, be inspired by.''
As recounted in the 1998 memoir ''Flory: Survival in the Valley of Death,'' Van Beek and her husband survived the sinking of their ship as they tried to flee Holland, then three years of hiding during the German occupation.
The movie has not been formally green-lighted and wouldn't air until at least the 2006-07 season.
Link to original article.

Here is the account from the New York Times' David M. Halbfinger:

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6 - Mel Gibson, whose "Passion of the Christ" was criticized by some as anti-Semitic - and whose father has said that the Holocaust did not happen - is developing a nonfiction mini-series about the Holocaust.
Flory A. Van Beek, a Dutch Jew whose memoir will be the basis for the proposed mini-series.
Mr. Gibson's television production company will base the four-hour miniseries for ABC on the self-published memoir of Flory A. Van Beek, a Dutch Jew whose gentile neighbors hid her from the Nazis but who lost several relatives in concentration camps.
The project is in its early stages, so there is no guarantee that it will be completed. Mr. Gibson is not expected to act in the mini-series, nor is it certain that his name, rather than his company's, will be publicly attached to the final product, according to several people involved in developing it.
But Quinn Taylor, ABC's senior vice president for movies for television, acknowledged that the attention-getting value of having Mr. Gibson attached to a Holocaust project was a factor.
"Controversy's publicity, and vice versa," Mr. Taylor said.
Mr. Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, has repeatedly denied that the Holocaust happened. Before the release of "The Passion of the Christ," Hutton Gibson said that accounts of the Holocaust were mostly "fiction" and asserted that there were more Jews in Europe after World War II than before.
Link to original article.

Notice how the liberals at the NYT couldn't wait to get make the point that some believe that "The Passion of the Christ" was anti-Semitic and that his dad (Gibson's not Christ's) don't believe the holocaust ever happened. Whatever!! I admire Mr. Gibson for ignoring his critics and making movies that speak of faith and suffering of Christians and Jews through the ages. God Bless you Mr. Gibson.

See The Jerusalem Post's article for yet another take on it.