SUBMITTED BY Timbo

February 20, 2004 — In advance of his film's release, Mel Gibson talks to USA Today about his personal journey making "The Passion of the Christ" and his plans for the future.

As for whether Gibson's authorship of this pointedly religious film will turn off future moviegoers, observers are divided.

"I have a friend who saw the film and said, 'I will never look at Mel Gibson the same way again,' and it wasn't a compliment," says film critic and historian Leonard Maltin. "It's like people I know who refuse to watch Woody Allen films after what happened with Soon-Yi. Or some people who feel Martin Sheen's political activism is a turnoff. It remains to be seen if Gibson has branded himself."

But old perceptions die hard.

"If Gibson's agent marched into a studio chief's office now to pitch his client in another cop picture, what do you think is going to happen? They'll sign," Variety editor Peter Bart says. "But maybe that isn't what he wants to do next?"

Gibson says another page in the Mad Max saga "was on the table at one point" but no longer, largely because of budget disputes. Instead, he says, he wants "to take a little while and digest all this and see where I am."

He adds that most of the ideas he thought about while filming The Passion in Italy were other Bible stories, particularly Old Testament staples featuring a demanding God. If Gibson proves he can make money turning them out, who's to say this couldn't be the new direction for his Icon Productions?

Read the rest at the link below.