MEL GIBSON FILES $35 MILLION LAWSUIT AGAINST MARTIN SCORSESE

Scorsese accused of stealing Gibson's plans to produce and star in contemporary version of Romeo and Juliet

By Pamela Putz

The Schalotte / June 1, 2012

A visibly angry Mel Gibson told a gathering of the Hollywood press corps that he was suing Martin Scorsese for $35 million for stealing his plans to produce and star in a contemporary version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In an obscenity-laced press conference, Gibson said that he had offered Scorsese the director’s job, but that the legendary filmmaker stabbed him in the back by stealing the plot for the film he had already begun to cast.

“I invited that fucking Wop over to my office, showed him my screenplay, and asked him if he would direct my Romeo and Juliet film for me,” said Gibson. “He told me that he would study the script and let me know later. The next thing I know, Scorsese is making an announcement that he’s going to produce the film himself. That motherfucking thief stole my movie and that's why I'm suing the God damn Dago.”

On Monday, Scorsese announced that he was planning to film a contemporary version of Romeo and Juliet set in Los Angeles and that he had already signed Robert De Niro and Sharon Tate as Juliet’s parents and Danny Glover and Queen Latifah as Romeo’s parents.

Gibson told reporters that “I’m not letting that fucking Dago get away with this!” Gibson, who has been accused of anti-Semitism, said that “I’ve been looking forward to portraying a Jewish father so we can put behind us those spurious charges that I hate the damn Jews. Now that God damn spaghetti bender comes along and ruins my chance to prove that I’m not a fucking bigot and that I don’t hate those fucking Christ killers.”

Gibson said he was going to play Abe Finkelstein, Romeo’s father, and that he had already signed Justin Bieber for the role of Romeo Finkelstein, Susan Sarandon as Romeo’s mother, Whoopi Goldberg as Juliet Washington’s mother, and Rosario Dawson as Juliet. “And I even landed Al Sharpton to play the role of Juliet’s father. Now who else would sign that fucking nigger for a leading role in a movie, huh?”

Gibson’s version of Romeo and Juliet is set in Brooklyn, New York. Romeo Finkelstein and Juliet Washington are seniors at a Brooklyn High School. Romeo’s father is the owner and operator of Finkelstein’s Fashion Mart in the predominantly black Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Juliet’s father hates Jews because he believes they are leeches sucking the blood out of the black community as absentee landlords charging high rents for rundown apartments and store owners selling inferior merchandize at inflated prices.

In Gibson’s version, Romeo and Juliet fall in love, but Romeo’s parents do not want him to marry a gentile, especially a black gentile. And Juliet’s parents are determined that no daughter of theirs will ever marry a bloodsucking Jew. Romeo gets Juliet pregnant. Her father orders her to get an abortion and forbids her from seeing Romeo again. Juliet then runs off, gets rip-roaring drunk, and passes out. Romeo finds Juliet and thinks she’s dead. He takes off his belt and hangs himself. Juliet awakens to find Romeo dead. She removes the belt and hangs herself too.

“You can see the close similarity between my screenplay and the plot Scorsese described Monday,” Gibson told the reporters. “That God damn fucking Wop stole my screenplay and I’m sure as shit going to make that sorry ass motherfucker pay for it.”