Joe Eszterhas moves feud with Mel Gibson in tell-all e-book

Washington: Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has written an e-book that recounts his fraught relationship with actor and director Mel Gibson.

Titled ‘Heaven and Mel’, the book, available only through Amazon’s Kindle for 2.99-dollar, recounts the time when ‘Basic Instinct’ screenwriter Eszterhas worked with Gibson on a screenplay about the Maccabees, Jewish freedom fighters in the 2nd century.

Warner Bros ultimately shelved the project.

“On a human level it’s a great story, and it can’t be told in a nine-page letter,” a news channel has quoted Eszterhas as telling TheWrap.

“Much of it is amusing, some of it is very serious and has to do with anti-Semitism and questions of values. But mostly it’s just very human. I view it as a terrific tale,” he said.

In one excerpt from the book, posted on Showbiz411.com, Eszterhas mentions the Holocaust to Gibson.

“The Holocaust is mostly a lot of horseshit,” he said.

“I know he’s goading me. He knows how I feel about the Holocaust… ‘They’re just a bunch of oven dodgers,” he smiles.

“It is an actorly smile, the kind of smile Robert Mitchum did so well in ‘The Night of the Hunter’,” he said.

Eszterhas has also written about how Gibson trashes the people he has worked with, calling Randall Wallace, who wrote Gibson’s Oscar-winning film ‘Braveheart,’ “a loser,” and Brian Helgeland, who wrote and directed ‘Payback,’ “an ingrate.”

And in another excerpt posted on the website, Eszterhas writes that Gibson told the screenwriter’s wife Naomi, “I have so much rage and no one can tell me where it comes from.”

In April, Eszterhas had released a two-and-a-half-minute-long recording to The Wrap, in which he said that the Oscar-winning actor-director went on a violent, profanity-laden rant against the screenwriter and Gibson’s ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva.

Before that, Eszterhas had leaked a nine-page letter in which he accused Gibson of wild, out-of-control behavior, anti-Semitic remarks and threatening violent against Grigorieva.

Gibson had responded by calling Eszterhas’ allegation “utter fabrications.” Gibson had later gone on Jay Leno TV show and made light of the entire incident.

ANI