Mel Gibson Does The Apocalypto Yakky Yak

Typical. Mel Gibson makes one lousy blood and guts film about Jesus, and suddenly he thinks he can make all his movies with unknown actors in languages that nobody actually speaks.

His new film Apocalypto has been on the cards for a little while now, but Mel Gibson has only just decided to tell the world what it is actually about.

After The Passion Of The Christ, Mel Gibson (DVDs) changed in the eyes of
the public. Suddenly he wasn’t that wanker out of What Women Want
anymore; he was a scary-eyed religious nutter with something of a blood
fetish. And crucially, he also became the poster boy for America’s
bible belt.

Gibson has decided to follow up Christ with Apocalypto - a movie set
in ancient South America, where everyone only talks in the dead Mayan
dialect of Yucateco. Which is pretty much what you’d expect. And,
although Gibson couldn’t rope in his old buddy Jesus to star in
Apocalypto, the film will be just as violent as The Passion Of The
Christ. But Mel, what’s Apocalypto about?

"I’m hoping that by
focusing on this civilisation we’re able to be introspective about
ourselves. It’s set before the Conquest, so we are using mostly
indigenous people and actors from Mexico City. There’s a lot of mystery
to the Mayan culture, but it’s just the backdrop to what I’m doing -
creating an action adventure of mythic proportions."

Didn’t really answer the question, did you Mel?

"If I was in it, it would wreck everything."

Well, yes. That’s a given - we’ve seen Ransom, after all. But tell us about the plot of Apocalypto.

"[It's] a story about a man and his woman, his child and his father, his
community. [The man] is put in an incredibly heightened,
stressful situation… has to overcome tremendous obstacles. So it’s a
universal story in that respect."

That’s that cleared up, then. Anything else to add?

"A lot of it, storywise, I just made up."

Oh.

"At this moment here in Mexico, my mouth likes the food but my stomach doesn’t."

OK Mel, stop now.

Read more:

Mel Gibson’s new movie: Apocalypto - CNN

[story by Stuart Heritage]