Mel Gibson's upcoming movie 'Rothchild' with Shia LaBeouf has stirred a hornet's nest over actor's past anti-semitic comments
Mel Gibson seems to be having a super busy Cannes.
The actor is set to act in a dark comedy called 'Rothchild' about New York’s super-rich in a movie helmed by 'Stan & Ollie' director Jon S. Baird.
The movie will co-star with Shia LaBeouf as a bastard child named Becket Rothchild disowned from his family’s vast fortune. Gibson will play the patriarch, named Whitelaw Rothchild, Deadline reported Monday.
HanWay Films has boarded the project and will kick off international sales at Cannes. CAA Media Finance is handling North American rights. 'Rothchild' is being produced by Los Angeles-based production company Unified Pictures. Keith Kjarval and Tyler Jackson will produce alongside Black Box Management’s Lowell Shapiro and Mike Dill who represent the writer.
The comedy will center on Becket — the bastard child of a mother, who on 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 an opportunity, it does not take long for Becket to fully grasp the immense gap between his situation and the richest 1 per cent, 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, 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.
“Rothchild is a satirical and thrilling ride, and I am elated to be working with a filmmaker like Jon Baird, who not only has an incredible track record of guiding award-winning performances but is crafting this film to be an action-packed cautionary tale on wealth and power,” said Kjarval.
“Baird has proved to be brilliant at edgy dark comedy bringing Irvine Welsh’s Filth to life, then showed his mainstream chops with the beloved Stan & Ollie. Here he has a chance to combine all his skills and bring to life a real twist on the classic rags to riches story. The divide between the super rich and the rest of the world is an ever growing one, and it’s both fun and fascinating to delve into its inner bowels along with our hero trying to scramble to the top and claim his piece." said HanWay Managing Director Gabrielle Stewart.
Moreover, Gibson has several projects at Cannes including action comedy 'Fatman,' in which he plays Santa Claus and action movie 'Force of Nature'.
The movie has been shoved into the spotlight because of the fact that it seems to be a pun on the name of the famous Rothschild family. Although reports on the 'Rothchild' film do not mention if the family involved is actually Jewish or if the title is a nod to the Rothschilds in name only. Moreover, fans seem to think the movie is 'anti-semitic' and Gibson's track record doesn't help.
In 2006, Gibson told a police officer, “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” was in the same incident recorded — per his arrest report — "blurt[ing] out a barrage of anti-Semitic remarks about Jews" and reportedly hasn't shied away from expressing other such profanities.
Members of the wealthy European Rothschild family are descendants of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, an 18th-century German banker whose five sons launched banking dynasties in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna and Milan. They are often placed at the centre of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that claim Jews exert influence over many sectors of society, such as banking and the media.
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