The very first thing we heard about Mel Gibson’s plans to star in a film that starts shooting next month in Mexico was when the Governor of Veracruz announced they were partially emptying a prison there so Gibson could shoot. Mel filmed much of Apocalypto in Veracruz and so has a good relationship with them. However even at the time, emptying part of a prison of jailbirds seemed a bit extreme for a movie.
Well, now the reaction has come, with 300 family members of prisoners protesting outside Ignacio Allende Prison, as they are furious because they heard that inmates are being transferred to other prisons further away, just so Mel can make his movie. There’s also been upset inside the prison, with reports that the prisoners nearly rioted. However the prison governor has stated that the anger is unnecesary, as nobody is being moved to a different prison, and that the worst that will happen is that inmates will be moved out of one section of the prison and into another while filming takes place.
The film in question is the recently announced How I Spent My Summer Vacation, which Gibson also wrote (although he won’t direct), about a career criminal who gets caught by Mexican authorities and is sent to a drug- and crime-filled prison, where he learns how to survive with the help of a 9-year-old boy. Hopefully the film, to be directed by Adrian Grunberg, won’t be quite as controversial when it actually starts filming.