Mel Gibson Plans TV Miniseries on Holocaust

You can say this about Mel Gibson: He isn't afraid to tackle sensitive topics.

The actor, who defied the odds with the blockbuster success of his film "The Passion of the Christ," is turning his attention to the Holocaust.

According to the New York Times, Gibson's television production company is developing a four-hour nonfiction miniseries for ABC based on the life of Flory A. Van Beek, a Dutch Jew whose gentile neighbors hid her from the Nazis but who lost several relatives in concentration camps.

Since the project is in preliminary stages, details about the production are limited. Gibson may not act in the miniseries, and there's no guarantee that it will ever be finished or aired.

Quinn Taylor, ABC's senior vice president in charge of movies for television, told the Times that the attention-getting value of having Gibson attached to a Holocaust project was a factor.

"Controversy's publicity, and vice versa," Taylor said.

"The Passion of the Christ" was assailed by critics as an anti-Semitic passion play -- and Gibson's father has been on record as a Holocaust denier.

Gibson is currently filming "Apocalypto," an adventure set before the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America.