Disney has won the right to distribute Oscar-winning actor Mel Gibson's next historical epic - which is largely to be performed in a language that was used 3,000 years ago.

According to reports in America over the weekend, Mr Gibson has written the script, will direct and produce the movie, Apocalypto, through his Icon production company, but he will not act in the film. The film will be based on the Mayan civilisation of central America, of around 1000 BC. Shooting is due to begin in October with the release due next summer.

This is not the first time that Mr Gibson has preferred an off-screen presence, having courted controversy with his The Passion of The Christ. That film also revived Aramaic, as well as using Latin and Hebrew.

In Passion, Gibson retold the final hours of Jesus' life, often in excruciating detail. Hollywood studios were reluctant to distribute the religious epic, but it ended up grossing more than $611 million worldwide.

Apocalypto is apparently does not have a religious theme, and Disney were keen to snap up the rights, according to Daily Variety.

The film's contents were closely guarded secrets, with executives forced to read scripts at Mr Gibson's Santa Monica offices to help prevent any leaks.

Apocalypto is not the only movie based on Central American history planned in Hollywood, where The Serpent and the Eagle and Aztec are both in pre-production.

Empire magazine today sounded a note of scepticism about Mr Gibson's apparently opting to replicate the successful formula of Passion, however. "After all, the success of Passion lay largely on two elements: the support of the immense religious movement in the States, and the controversy that drew everyone else to go have a look out of curiosity's sake", the online edition of the magazine related.

"In the absence of those factors, you're going to be left with a struggle to persuade anyone but lecturers in Mezoamerican studies to attend... Frankly, we'd be surprised if an R-rated action film in Mayan breaks box office records".

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