Gibson Departing

Entertainment weekly just posted their cover story Q&A with Mel Gibson. I haven't read the whole thing...you can be assured that I will once the mag comes out, but the quote below surprised me.

Mel Gibson on exorcising his demons: "Martin Scorsese sent me the script from the last film he did, The Departed. I thought it was fantastic. I was like, ''S---, how come you always give me the good script when I'm about to go into production?''"

Can you imagine Departed with Gibson? Even more fun to speculate is this question: How different would this fall had looked had Gibson done that project instead of going the route of the wreck loose with his own Apocalypto? His whole drunken affair could have been written off as an understandable side effect of prepping for a movie where violence and rage were required. Certainly the studio would have required Scorsese and the other principles in the film to rally around Gibson and defend him. With that type of A-list support in the press, perhaps instead of disqualifying him for the Oscar, Gibson would have been a front-runner like Nicholson currently is. It would have been safe to vote for Gibson as a make-up vote for not supporting the well-made Passion.