MEL GIBSON; THE MOVIE PRODUCTION MVP
Mel Gibson spent $70M of his own money making two consecutive films in languages nobody on Earth speaks conversationally. They generated $733M at the box office. The Passion of the Christ. Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin. $30M self-financed after every studio in Hollywood passed. Gibson marketed and distributed it himself through Newmarket Films. It opened on Ash Wednesday 2004 and grossed $612M worldwide, held the domestic R-rated box office record for 20 years, and remains the highest-grossing self-financed film in cinema history. His personal take cleared $400M. Two years later he did it again. Apocalypto. Entirely in Yucatec Maya. $40M budget. Zero Hollywood actors. His lead, Rudy Youngblood, was working at a Lowe's in Texas when Gibson pulled him from a general casting call. Youngblood had less than a month to learn Yucatec Maya, performed every stunt himself including a 175-foot waterfall free fall and sprinting in front of a live 200-pound jaguar. The stunt coordinator called him...