The Mel Gibson-starring Rothchild, which is being shopped around during Cannes, is an awful idea during a film in which anti-Semitism is rising.

The name of the film alone is a pun on the wealthy Jewish family.  Moreover, that the Rothschild family has been subjected to many conspiracy theories with anti-Semitic origins.  This should be reason enough to lay pause.  Did nobody tell them that this film is a bad idea?  If it’s any luck, the film will quickly be canned.

Least we remind you that Mel Gibson is a notorious anti-Semite.  While many Jews have not forgotten what he did, it seems like Hollywood is moving on.  I haven’t.  It’s really hard to forget that the Lethal Weapon star once remarked: “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”

What makes me more disappointing is that Jon S. Baird did a spectacular job last year with Stan & Ollie.  To see the director announce Rothchild as his next project–let alone one starring Gibson–is disappointing to say the least.

The news was announced this morning on Deadline about the dark satire of New York’s super rich.  But with a name like Rothchild, this will not be a satire of the Trump family.  It’s not even close.  Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter has more information.

The black comedy will center on Becket Rothchild (Shia LaBeouf) — the bastard child of a mother, who in eloping with a jazz musician was cast out from the Rothchild family and its vast fortune — who was never given a fair lot in life. All grown up and armed with charisma, intelligence and a flair for opportunity, it does not take long for Becket to fully grasp the immense gap between his situation and the richest 1 percent, which should be his birthright. He has a plan.

There are precisely nine Rothchild family members who stand between him and his fortune, including Whitelaw (Gibson), his sinister grandfather. How hard could it be for them each to meet with an “accident”? With the unique advantage of being unknown to any of them, Becket penetrates the weird and twisted lives of his super-rich kin amongst frat boys, hipster artists and reality TV stars. The only thing that threatens to get in the way is love, both old and new.

I like Shia LeBeouf and think the world will be blown away when Honey Boy is released this year.  But this is not the right project for the Even Stevens alumnus.  Not when it stars an anti-Semite.

Because of Gibson’s involvement and because this film is a satire of the Rothschild family, I just can’t imagine a way in which this film does not come off as anti-Semitic in nature.  After all, the large majority of conspiracy theories related to the Rothschild family were largely rooted in anti-Semitism.  I’m sure that screenwriter John Patton Ford meant well when he wrote this script but getting someone like Mel Gibson attached is an awful idea.

This is my one and only article about this film.  I have zero interest in seeing it.  It should not be made let alone get released.