It was all going so well for Mel. That wobbly Malibu incident was more or less behind him, and Apocalypto had surprised everyone to perform at the box office.
But now it’s back to good old-fashioned controversy as Gibson is being sued by Mexican director Juan Catlett, who claims Gibson stole scenes from his 1991 movie Return To Aztlan, which is set in a similar time period and depicts an ancient Mexican civilization at war following a severe drought.

Catlett even alleges that Mel was cheeky enough to request a copy of Return To Aztlan while shooting Apocalypto, and then steal scenes to include in his own movie. It’s not clear which scenes Catlett is referring to (if anyone out there knows, please fill us in) and it’s even less clear what will happen if Catlett’s legal action is successful. Gibson seems to be testing the maxim “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” to the very limit.