In a public fallout fitting of a Hollywood screenplay, Mel Gibson is mired in fresh controversy after pulling out of directing a project written by veteran Joe Eszterhas about the ancient Jewish military leader Judas Maccabee.

After Eszterhas had spent two years working on the screenplay, the studio Warner Brothers announced that it was dropping the project, and Eszterhas responded with an angry nine-page letter to Gibson that got leaked to the press. In it, he claimed that Gibson had never planned to make the movie, but had only signed up to quell rumours that he was anti-semitic; Gibson’s reputation suffered, four years ago, when he criticised Jews in a rant as he was arrested for motor offences.

Eszterhas – who’s best known for the 1985 thriller Jagged Edge and 1992’s controverisal Basic Instinct – went on to accuse the director of hating Jews and having the same mindset as Hitler.

In a rebuttal to Eszterhas, also leaked to the press, Gibson described the claims as “utter fabrications” and remarked that the reason the film wasn’t going to get made was because his script wasn’t good enough.

He insisted that he did still want to make a film about the Maccabees – but with a different writer.