Mel Gibson casting in new ‘Rothchild’ questioned

Jewish groups have questioned the casting of Mel Gibson as the villainous head of a wealthy banking family in a new film called ‘Rothchild’.

In 2006 Gibson’s reputation nosedived after video emerged of his drunken rant about “the f****** Jews” who he said were “responsible for all the wars in the world”.

Two years earlier Gibson, a committed Catholic, made a film called ‘Passion of the Christ,’ which some felt was antisemitic in its portrayal of Jews.

Now he is set to play the patriarch in a New York-based family with a name strikingly similar to that of the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish banking family beloved of conspiracy theorists for their role financing Britain’s war against Napoleon.

Publicists for the film, which includes Shia LeBeouf, said it was “completely unrelated” to the Rothschild family, despite the subtle difference in name, or any other Jewish banking family, but Jewish groups were less than impressed.

“Mel Gibson’s vile racist comments about Jews make his casting in this role utterly abhorrent,” said the London-based Campaign Against Antisemitism.

On social media, users derided the thinly-veiled reference, with one joking that “my film ‘Mel Gibbon’ about an abusive antisemitic film star with a martyr complex is completely unrelated to Mel Gibson”.