Rival Maccabee Producer: We're Gonna Beat Mel Gibson!

[NelsonG]

Filed under: [url="http://www.tmz.com/person/mel-gibson/"]Mel Gibson[/url], [url="http://www.tmz.com/category/movies/"]Movies[/url]

[b][img]http://ll-media.tmz.com/2011/09/29/0929-mel-juda-ex-getty.jpg[/img]
Mel Gibson's[/b] Hanukkah movie is in trouble -- TMZ has learned, another company is currently making their own [b]Judah Maccabee[/b] film ... and they're racing to beat Mel to the punch.

Sources close to the production tell us, the untitled Judah film -- by producer [b]Bruce Nash[/b] and writer [b]Scott Abbott[/b] -- was fast-tracked once news broke that Mel was putting together his own Maccabee homage.

We're told Nash believes Mel is the wrong person to helm such an important Jewish story -- telling friends, the Hanukkah tale should be told by someone who has respect for the Jewish community.

As we previously reported, Mel's been [url="http://www.tmz.com/2011/09/08/mel-gibson-maccabee-jewish-movie-joe-eszterhas-warner-bros-passion-of-the-christ/"][b]developing his J Macc film[/b][/url] for 10 years -- and sources tell us Nash has been working on his for 15. Nash doesn't have a shoot date yet, but the race is on.

Shana Tova!
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