Disney says moviegoers will see past Mel's rant

By Sue Zeidler

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Moviegoers will likely look past Mel Gibson's off-screen behavior when they view his new film "Apocalypto," said Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, the film's distributor, on Thursday.

"I think audiences will distinguish between the professional film making that Mel Gibson's involved in and Mel Gibson's personal life," Cook told the Reuters Media Summit in New York. Walt Disney Studios is a division of Walt Disney Co..

The movie that Gibson directed opens on December 8 and will be his first foray at the box office since being embroiled in a highly public controversy this summer for anti-Semitic comments he made to police in Malibu, California during his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving.

Gibson has apologized for the incident and said he was not anti-Semitic.

"Mel is one of the great filmmakers of all time," said Cook of Gibson, the star of the popular "Lethal Weapon" movies and director of "The Passion of the Christ."

The Passion of the Christ also stirred heated debate around the world for allegedly being anti-Semitic, but has grossed $612 million.

Cook said there were challenges in marketing "Apocalypto," which has no big stars attached and is a Mayan-language epic about the decline of the native civilization.

"We're marketing the movie in about as straight ahead a way as it can be and keeping the focus on the movie," he said.

"It think we'll be fine in the opening weekend. It's probably the kind of movie that will grow," said Cook, adding he expected the movie's unique qualities to propel it to success.

"The big thing it has going for it, is that audiences are looking for something they haven't seen before and that's something we truly have going for us," he said. "There has never been anything like this before."

He said Disney was using the traditional media mix of billboards, radio and television to promote the film.

(For more coverage of the Reuters Media Summit, please see our MediaFile blog at blogs.reuters.com/mediafile)