Benedict Fitzgerald was the screenwriter selected by Mel Gibson in the spring of 2001 to write The Passion of the Christ. By all accounts, the process was a bloodletting, each subsequent rewrite returned awash in red-ink suggestions of, "Way more flesh rending here," "Watch out for those tricky Aramaic verb tenses!" and, "Maybe add, 'Don't blame us. This is all the Jews' fault!'...Or is that too on the nose?" Eventually, a draft was delivered that would become the blueprint for one of the most successful independent films of all time: a $30 million-budgeted production that returned $612 million in worldwide box office receipts. Yesterday, Fitzgerald filed suit against Gibson, accusing Gibson of fraud and breach of contract, and demanding no less than $5 million in damages from the Malibu land czar:

He claims that in their original negotiations, Gibson said he was going to pay for the film himself, and "because he was so rich," he wouldn't take a cut of any profits, but that they would be divided among the other people who worked on the movie, "excluding Gibson. [...]

Fitzgerald, after lengthily describing his own Catholicism and fervent belief in the project (which he claims is how he got hired in the first place), says Gibson "preyed monetarily" on him, "taking advantage of his unbridled enthusiasm for the project and with full cognizance of [Fitzgerald's] fundamental personal and spiritual beliefs. In making a mockery of his own purported belief system, Gibson callously and greedily exploited [Fitzgerald]," the suit read.

"He shamelessly minted and cobbled gobbles of money from 'The Passion.' And just as Gibson extracted shared screenplay credit from [Fitzgerald], he also extracted sums of money due [Fitzgerald]," the suit continued. [...]

George R. Hedges, an attorney for Gibson's production company, Icon, told People, the lawsuit "is utterly baseless and the charges are utterly baseless."

Fitzgerald's suit couldn't be any worse-timed for the director, landing on the cusp of a bold new era for the most downtrodden and exploited peg of Hollywood's rigid above-the-line caste system. It's disputes like this that can plant seeds of simmering resentment, eventually exploding on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway as an officer waves away the potent agave fumes that accompany Gibson's hate-fueled accusations of, "Are you a screenwriter? Fucking screenwriters... The screenwriters are responsible for all the strikes in the world."

• Writer sues Mel Gibson over 'Passion' script [Access Hollywood]

Tags: celeb jurisprudence | in suings | mel gibson | the passion of the christ