CNN: Disney not ditching Mel: says it will distribute 'Apocalypto'

Disney not ditching Mel
Studio says it will distribute Gibson's film 'Apocalypto' as planned.
August 11 2006: 3:24 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- The Walt Disney Co. will distribute "Apocalypto," a Mayan-language film by actor-director Mel Gibson, as planned on Dec. 8, a Walt Disney Studios spokeswoman said Friday.

That confirmation refutes recent media and Internet reports that family-oriented Disney (Charts) wanted to sell distribution rights to the film to another studio to distance itself from the controversy over anti-Semitic remarks Gibson made when he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving last month in Malibu, California.

"It's not true," Disney spokeswoman Heidi Trotta said of the reports. Disney had no role in producing the film, a thriller with a cast of unknowns that is set in in an ancient Mayan settlement and told in the Yucatec dialect with subtitles. Hollywood experts said that until his arrest, it was expected that Gibson would lead the publicity campaign for the film.

Gibson has said the story would be told through the eyes of a Mayan man, his family and village, and would touch on universal themes about "civilizations and what undermines them."

That's cool. Of course it's a gross perversion of Mayan beliefs to suggest they thought that the world is gonna end in a Revelation-style apocalypse in 2012. They only think that 2012 is when the next age begins. But don't let the facts stop ya, Mel. I'm sure it'll be a cool movie when I get around to watching it on TV seven or eight years from now.

A report --

http://www.chiron-communications.com/communique%207-10.html

"Anthropologists visit the temple sites," Mr. Barrios says, "and read the stelas and inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It’s just their imagination...Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed. The indigenous have the calendars, and know how to accurately interpret it, not others."

and as for Disney - there is much money invested to not release - that's all

My understanding is that the movie is about collapse due to climate change and resource depletion, and the degree to which those in power will go to maintain the status quo.

Not that it could ever happen again . . .


As our fifth strand, we have to wonder why the kings and nobles failed to recognize and solve these seemingly obvious problems undermining their society. Their attention was evidently focused on their short-term concerns of enriching themselves, waging wars, erecting monuments, competing with each other, and extracting enough food from the human peasants to support all those activities. Like most leaders throughout human history, the Maya kings and nobles did not heed long-term problems, insofar as they perceived them.

. . .

Like Easter Island chiefs erecting ever larger statues, eventually crowned by pukao, and like Anasazi elites treating themselves to necklaces of 2000 turquoise beads, Maya kings sought to outdo each other with more and more impressive temples, covered with thicker and thicker plaster, reminiscent in turn of the extravagant conspicuous consumption by modern American CEO's. The passivity of Easter chiefs and Maya kings in the face of the real big threats to their societies completes our list of disquieting parallels.

From Chapt. 5, 'The Maya Collapses', from 'Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed’ by Jared Diamond


Consider the initial stages of the 'Last Man Standing' resource war in the Middle East. A war being initiated by 'oil men', for a region containing most of the earths remaining petroleum and natural gas reserves, by men who know no other paradigm but petro-wealth and petro-power.

Nice try, but Disney is too busy lovin' the Benjamins to worry about religion. Next?

Schmuck.

"Under New Management

A period of stagnation that followed the founder's death came to an end in September 1984 when Michael Eisner became the Disney company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Eisner moved quickly to install fellow Jews in top positions throughout the Disney operation, and soon Hollywood's last gentile-run studio passed into Jewish hands.

As media critic Michael Medved has pointed out, "The famous Disney organization, which was founded by Walt Disney, a gentile Midwesterner who allegedly harbored anti-Semitic attitudes, now features Jewish personnel in nearly all its most powerful positions." ("Jews Run Hollywood. So What?," Moment magazine, August 1996.) Under the new management, Disney company sales and profits soared, and the revitalized company reclaimed a leading place in the entertainment world."

So, there's definatly a corporate history of it at Disney, thus my 'ghost in the machine' comment. So, you're wrong; live with it.

from what's not in that book. You want more?

http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/99/hhr99_2.html

"In early 1940, Walt Disney was thinking of taking his studio public and asked Ford for his advice on the enterprise. Ford expressed his admiration for Disney because he was a successful Protestant in the film business� a field dominated by Jews. However; Ford warned, Jews also controlled the stock market, and Disney would be wise to sell his company outright rather than lose it to �them� one piece at a time. Disney, who may have had anti-Semitic leanings of his own, thanked Ford for his advice.(279)
It was not always in just his private circles that Ford would reveal such views. After interviewing Ford in 1941, a reporter for the Manchester Guardian later said, �The best thing he would say about the Jews was that you couldn�t do without them. The Gentiles wouldn�t work if the Jews weren�t here.�280 Public opinion polls also showed that the majority of Americans, as high as 80%, still connected Henry Ford with anti-Semitism."

From those whacky conspiracists over at Hanover. Get it yet? Disney was a noted anti-semite.

I was just pointing out that the post of yours I replied to quotes (unintentionally on your part) a guy who runs an organization dedicated to Holocaust denial.

Hitlers Children-Walt Disney cartoon (Banned)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jbA437FHFU

I kind of think Disney was against der Furher ...

Read up, dude:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney:_Hollywood%27s_Dark_Prince

Here's my favorite bit:

"However, certain items discussed at length in the book do seem to be true, such as Disney's apparent anti-Semitism, since Eliot includes quotes on it from Ward Kimball (one of the legendary "Nine Old Men" team of animators) and Henry Ford, a longtime friend of Disney's. Disney's dislike of labor unions is still well-known among Hollywood buffs, and Eliot's book goes into much detail on a crippling strike at Disney Studios in 1941, which did not help his opinions with labor groups. Disney's service with HUAC is also heavily backed up, as the book includes an image of a letter from the U.S. government thanking him for his service, dated from 1954."

He was an Anti-Semite, an informer for the House Un-American activities committee, and a general shithead. Busted unions, hated the Jews, great guy. I wonder how he felt about Gay and African Americans? The Irish? I wonder what he thought of Arabs? I wonder if he ever let his considerable intellect examine his own xenophobia? I wonder - do you?

His prejudices presumably went to the grave with him. The corporate bosses today make their decisions based on potential profit. If they think Mel's movie will make money for them based on what they've seen, heard, and read, they'll distribute it. If the public stays away in droves because its a crappy movie or because they don't like Gibson or his prejudices, then it will prove to be a poor business decision - but a business decision nonetheless.

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:) :) :sarcasm:

Mel's father, Hutton Gibson, started a schismatic Catholic "church" of which he (Hutton) is the leader. Mel has long been accused of anti-Semitism because his father is, indeed, an anti-Semite.

Unless I've missed a lot of news, Mel's anti-Semitism has been restricted to a line in The Passion of the Christ and his recent meltdown with the cop.

Scientology is something else entirely. Entirely.

There's also the case of these two white/hetero/rich right-wing Mormons who regularly insult Jews, but South Park is untouchable.

--p!

this movie looks cool and I can't wait to see it.

How do you know what it looks like if they havent started filming?

Do you work for the GOP? *I'm kidding* :sarcasm: :P

a pop-up says:

"Couldn't open the file "apacalypto tsr 1_480p.ma"
because a bad public movie atom was found in the movie."

strange that! It could be my Q-time software isn't up to snuff.
Or...because my mac was in the shop for full a restore and the restore
set the mac back one generation too many. Anyway, I've never seen
a pop-up with a message like that before.

Is this normal turnabout for a glitch or is this truly a (planted) bad seed?

First off, it looks to be a thoughtful and provocative movie, which is somewhat of a surprise coming from Mel Gibson. Hopefully, he treated known Mayan history with a bit more respect than he did with Braveheart or The Patriot. The funny part may be seeing just how much money Gibson loses on this project. It's my understanding that he underwrote the production of the film himself because he couldn't find backers. It's the same thing he did with Passion of the Christ, which ultimately make him a very rich man. But this one could be his undoing. American audiences have no interest in movies with subtitles unless you can get Jesus as your pitch man. How ironic indeed if Gibson's best movie causes him to go bankrupt.

alcoholics, addicts and otherwise imperfect humans like George W.

his dad did not move out of the country to keep his own out of Vietnam.

My what a fascinating story. Only if was true.

By ALL means go see his cool movie. Suport a nut job that says even his wife will be not going to heaven. It's funny how when he was making the hompophobe remarks and then playing nice with them after a shitstorm of publicity about it, people cannot see a pattern here?

Go see that movie. Make Mel some more cash. What possible group can he be outed for issues with now. Is there anyone left? Only in Mels little twisted skull soaked in good Malibu booze that another relapse will expose, but statistics are on his side. The math is finally working for him.

Yes, go plunk down some cash and invite a gay Jewish guy to see it with you.