Mel Gibson fired back at screenwriter Joe Eszterhas for accusing the Braveheart star of anti-Semitism, calling the writer’s comments “utter fabrication” and saying he was angry over a rejected film script.

Mr Gibson, who has been dogged by similar criticism since making an anti-Semitic statement in 2006 to police in a drunken rant, had been working with the Basic Instinct screenwriter on a movie about the ancient Jewish hero Judah Maccabee.

On Wednesday, Hollywood show business publication TheWrap.com reported that the first draft of Mr Eszterhas’ script was rejected by Warner Bros.

When he heard of it, Mr Eszterhas sent a nine-page letter to Mr Gibson accusing him of not really intending to make the movie, called The Maccabees.

Mr Eszterhas wrote that Mr Gibson announced the project purely “in an attempt to deflect continuing charges of anti-Semitism,” according to a copy posted on TheWrap.com.

He also accused Mr Gibson of calling Jews “oven-dodgers” and “Jewboys” when they met and even wrote that Mr Gibson admitted vowing to kill his ex-girlfriend Oksana Gregorieva, following a bitter public feud with her over custody of the pair’s child.

Mr Gibson did not directly address charges of anti-Semitism, but said Mr Eszterhas’s description of his statements and actions are “utter fabrication”.

“Contrary to your assertion that I was only developing Maccabees to burnish my tarnished reputation, I have been working on this project for over 10 years and it was publicly announced eight years ago,” Mr Gibson wrote in the letter, released by a spokesman.

“I absolutely want to make this movie; it’s just that neither Warner Brothers nor I want to make this movie based on your script,” he said.

Mr Gibson, 56, went on to call the draft that Mr Eszterhas submitted the most “substandard” he had seen in 25 years of overseeing script development and a “waste of time”.

Jewish leaders criticised Mr Gibson’s Maccabee project when it was revealed last fall as offensive given the star’s history.

In the past, Jewish groups accused Mr Gibson of evoking age-old stereotypes about Jews in 2004’s Passion of the Christ, which made over €456 million at worldwide box offices.