Passion of the Mexican Prison
Mel Gibson brings his movie-making charm to Texas
Academy award winner and alleged anti-Semite, alcoholic, and homophobe Mel Gibson is shooting the movie How I Spent My Summer Vacation on location in Brownsville, Texas (the relatively small — less than 150,000 people — city on the Rio Grande.)
Mel Gibson is a co-writer for the screenplay How I Spent My Summer Vacation, which is a drama where his character gets arrested by Mexican authorities that take him to prison. In this tough prison, he learns how to survive with the aid of a 9-year-old Mexican boy.
Rumors flew that Jennifer Aniston was also in Brownsville, but a rep for Gibson told the Brownsville Herald that she isn't in the movie and cannot confirm if she is in town or not (because Jennifer Aniston being in Brownsville could be an everyday thing). Gibson filmed off Highway 48 at Port Mart.
"He was in and out in three days," Sylvia Rangel, who works for Brownsville's Health and Human Services Department, tells CultureMap. "They filmed for a week in Brownsville and will say it's in San Diego. He was nice for the few seconds he passed by."
Rangel says that Gibson stayed on South Padre Island during the shoot.
Peter Goodman, Brownsville's film commissioner (yes, the burg has one), says that Texas is making it easier for movies to film in the state. But it might take a Mel Gibson tabloid moment to put Brownsville on the international map.
Texas is famous for a lot of things and alcohol is definitely one of them. Can Brownsville, alcohol, and the police create the perfect cocktail for another famed mugshot and police audio?