Mel Gibson is developing a miniseries on the Great Siege of Malta

Mel Gibson takes on the Siege of Malta: the epic the industry never tells

Mel Gibson is returning to historical epics. According to reports circulating, the director is working on a miniseries about the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, the siege in which the Knights of St John held out against the Ottoman empire until the Spanish tercios arrived. Little else is known about the project, but the material is enough to spark a good controversy.

The central episode, the Spanish relief force that came to break the siege, includes an anecdote that divides enthusiasts: a Morisco travelling with the tercios deserted and warned the Ottomans that the reinforcements were few. The scheme backfired on whoever hatched it. That detail, however, has its sceptics. Some take it as fact, others dismiss it as an unfounded hoax. The debate promises to be lively.

The news arrives alongside the list of historical projects Gibson left half-finished or in rumour territory: a satire about the Rothschild family with Shia LaBeouf, a possible film about Don Pelayo, the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa and even an epic about Blas de Lezo. In that context, Malta looks like the most antiestéticasible and the one that best fits the director's register: pressure, siege and blood without filters, in the vein of Apocalypto.

As is often recalled in these circles, Gibson's best films are the ones that end with the Spaniards arriving to restore order. The question for those who have spent years demanding historical epic without complexes is why the deeds that need no screenplay still go unfilmed: Las Navas, Covadonga, Blas de Lezo. Malta looks like the appetiser.