Mel Gibson scores in South of the Border action flick on DirecTV

2012.05.02 - 21.45 pm

“Get the Gringo,” a film that can be seen starting today on DirecTV’s VOD service, opens with Gibson playing a character identified as Driver in clown makeup, behind the wheel of a car speeding across a desert highway while another clown bleeds to death in the back seat.

American police are in pursuit. Although Driver makes it to Mexico, just, he is soon locked up in a prison known as El Pueblito, where he must fend for himself in a barbed-wire and sweat-drenched nether-world in which prisoners are allowed to carry guns and bring their families behind bars with them.

Driver lives by his wits, chain-smokes and schemes to get his stolen money back. He also bonds with a prison urchin (the terrific Kevin Hernandez of “The Sitter”) and the boy’s mother (Dolores Heredia).

The film, co-written by Academy Award winner Gibson and first-timers Adrian Grunberg and Stacy Perskie (Grunberg directed), is a South of the Border crime drama wrapped inside an action movie in the shoot-’em-up-blow-’em-up style of the late, great Sam Peckinpah (“The Wild Bunch”).

“Get the Gringo” also boasts an impressive amount of Mexican talent in front of and behind the camera and a strong supporting cast (Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Peter Stormare, Bob Gunton, Peter Gerety). Leading man Gibson carries the movie with aplomb and brings his usual mix of machismo, masochism, irreverence and one-liners. When asked for his name by a brutish policeman while still in the clown makeup, Gibson responds, “Bozo.”

Source: BostonHerald

Gibson Addresses Rant on The Tonight Show

2012.04.28 - 22.20 pm

Mel Gibson is finally addressing the proverbial elephant in the room. Following yet another one of his raging rants-caught-on-tape, the Get the Gringo star hit The Tonight Show and commented for the first time about his now infamous tirade against Showgirls screenwriter Joe Eszterhas.

"Maybe you don't know this about me, but I've got a little bit of a temper," Gibson quipped of the profanity-filled rant, which Eszterhas taped unbeknownst to him while they were together in Costa Rica in December.

Eszterhas was originally hired to write the first draft of Gibson's now-in-limbo passion project, The Maccabees, but the flick hit a snag when the screenwriter reportedly failed to produce an acceptable script. Then, to make matters worse, The Wrap obtained a nine-page letter from the writer in which he accused Gibson of using anti-Semitic remarks throughout his writing process, among other things.

Gibson denied those claims, replying in a letter to Eszterhas, "I was very frustrated that when you arrived at my home at the expense of both Warner Brothers and myself you hadn't written a single word of a script or even an outline after 15 months of research, meetings, discussions and the outpouring of my heartfelt vision for this story."

And that frustration was still evident as the 56-year-old thesp continued to share his side of the script fiasco with Jay Leno.

Source: Eonline

Mel Gibson Looking to Sue Joe Eszterhas for Audio Recording

2012.04.20 - 22.35 pm

Eszterhas recorded Mel Gibson while in the star's home in Costa Rica. The actor was angry over Eszterhas' lack of progress with "The Maccabees" script and also included him screaming sarcastically at his guests to eat and arbitrarily yelling "hate." And of course, the usual deluge of F-bombs.

Gibson believes he has a "basic human right" NOT to be secretly recorded in his own home.
The key to a viable civil lawsuit for the actor lies in Costa Rican law. Though Eszterhas' recording was released to TMZ in America, the actual act itself was done in Gibson's Costa Rica home.

Source: FindLaw

Get the Gringo Reviews

2012.04.20 - 10.25 am

Mel Gibson: "Get the Gringo is Fun"

2012.04.20 - 10.20 am

Get the Gringo Pictures

2012.04.19 - 17.40 pm

For more pictures and in full size visit Movie Album

Mel Gibson's 'Get the Gringo' has a one-night theatrical run

2012.04.19 - 17.00 pm

Mel Gibson’s new movie, “Get the Gringo,” rolled into a handful of theaters Wednesday night for what is certain to be the shortest theatrical run in the actor’s history: one night.

That’s because Gibson’s latest self-financed film, a $20-million, south-of-the-border crime drama set in a Mexican prison, won’t appear in theaters beyond Wednesday’s premiere in Austin, Texas, which was simulcast into a few auditoriums around the country. Instead, “Get the Gringo” will skip a theatrical run entirely and debut on the satellite service DirecTV on May 1 in one of the boldest bets on video-on-demand programming.

VOD transactions surged by 1 billion to 8.8 billion in 2011, according to a new study by Rentrak, but most of the movies released directly in the format have been low-budget art house fare like “Margin Call.” But Gibson’s movie, which the actor stars in, co-wrote and produced, is a relatively lavish action film that theoretically could have enjoyed a wide release at the multiplex.

But Gibson, in addition to all of his legal problems, has struggled at the box office recently. Last year, "The Beaver" failed to gross even $1 million, and the year before his $80-million drama "Edge of Darkness" sold just $43.3 million in tickets domestically.

“We’re just in a different era,” Gibson said at an Austin theater following the film’s premiere, with the actor’s interview by blogger Harry Knowles beamed into satellite screenings in cities such as Atlanta, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. “Many people just like to see things in their homes. It’s just another way to do it and a better way to do it. I think it’s the future.”

Once known as “How I Spent My Summer Vacation,” the violent film was directed and co-written by Adrian Grunberg, who was Gibson’s first assistant director on “Apocalypto.” In “Get the Gringo,” Gibson plays a character known as Driver, a veteran criminal thrown into a squalid Mexican prison. The film’s jail is patterned after El Pueblito, a notorious correctional facility in Tijuana that operated as its own city, with guns, drugs and prostitution readily available. “You can buy anything,” one character says in the film, “except your way out.”Gibson said in the Austin interview that he is finishing writing a movie about the Vikings with his “Braveheart” screenwriter Randall Wallace. “It’s phenomenal,” Gisbon said. “I can’t wait to get my claws on it.”

He also said he had been meeting with writer-director Robert Rodriguez about a possible sequel to “Machete” called "Machete Kills." “It sounds fun,” Gibson said.

Source: LaTimes

Mel Gibson to star in Machete 2?

2012.04.14 - 22.10 pm

Mel Gibson is apparently in talks to star in Robert Rodriguez's sequel to his action film Machete. The Sin City director is courting Mad Max star Mel and Michelle Williams to join Danny Trejo in the sequel to his gritty action film about the blade-wielding hero, Deadline.com reports. Rodriguez has previously revealed he has planned two sequels for Machete, one of which is set in space.

Source: BelfastTelegraph

Mel Gibson's friends insist he IS a fan of the late John Lennon

2012.04.14 - 22.00 pm

Mel Gibson has profusely denied claims he said John Lennon deserved to die. And in fact, friends of the beleaguered star say he is a huge Beatles fan and plays their music all the time. A source told website TMZ, screenwriter Joe Eszterhas' allegations that the actor celebrated John Lennon's death are false claiming 'It's not uncommon to hear The Beatles at Gibson's house.'

And that Gibson, 56, was even playing Lennon's classic hit Imagine at a recent function. Imagine is the song Eszterhas says Mel bashed recently, claiming the Braveheart star said: 'Imagine. I hate that f**king song. I'm glad [Lennon's] dead."'

Mel apparently says he isn't surprised by Eszterhas' false claims in his 9-page diatribe -- because the entire letter reads like a 'bad script.' It's not the first time the Hollywood veterans have fallen out. Mel has told friends that Eszterhas became frustrated with Mel because the actor-director had been putting more time into a viking movie he was working on, than he did into Maccabees. Yesterday Gibson hit back at screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for accusing the actor of anti-Semitism, calling the writer's comments 'utter fabrications' and saying he was angry over a rejected film script.

Hollywood show business publication TheWrap.com reported that the first draft of Eszterhas' script was rejected by Warner Bros. Upon hearing of it, Eszterhas sent a nine-page letter to Gibson accusing him of not really intending to make the movie, called The Maccabees. Eszterhas wrote that Gibson announced the project purely 'in an attempt to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism'.

Gibson, the Oscar winner whose movies include Mad Max and Lethal Weapon did not directly address charges of anti-Semitism, but said Eszterhas' description of his 'statements and actions' are 'utter fabrications.' 'Contrary to your assertion that I was only developing Maccabees to burnish my tarnished reputation, I have been working on this project for over 10 years and it was publicly announced eight years ago,' Gibson wrote in the letter, released by a spokesman. 'I absolutely want to make this movie; it's just that neither Warner Brothers nor I want to make this movie based on your script,' he said.

Gibson, 56, went on to call the draft that Eszterhas submitted the most 'substandard' he had seen in 25 years of overseeing script development and a 'waste of time.'

Source: DailyMail

Mickey Rourke - I Believe In Mel Gibson

2012.04.13 - 17.10 pm

Mel Gibson has at least one supporter in Hollywood ... his friend Mickey Rourke ... who tells TMZ, he thinks Joe Eszterhas is a LIAR ... who's out to smear Mel's reputation.
Mickey was leaving Caffe Primo in West Hollywood when we asked about Joe's allegations that Mel is a violent Jew-hater who hates John Lennon.

Mickey's response -- "Everybody is looking to make Mel look bad ... he's an easy f**king target."
He explained, "We live in a town that's built on envy."

It's not the first time Mickey's come to Mel's defense -- back in 2010, following Oksana Grigorieva's domestic violence allegations, Mickey said, "I wouldn't believe everything you hear ... I think he's a good dude, you know. And ah, screw the bitch!"

Source: TmZ

Mel Gibson and his daughter Lucia

2012.04.03 - 15.15 pm

Mel Gibson and his daughter Lucia enjoyed a carousel ride in Santa Monica yesterday

Source: Beaniecat.Blogspot.com