Mel Gibson has vehemently refuted claims that his upcoming Christ film, The Passion, is anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic. The accusations were made by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops after they obtained an early draft of the script from an unknown source.

Jewish leaders in particular have raised concerns that the movie, titled "The Passion," might portray Jews as collectively guilty for Christ's crucifixion.

Their concerns were sparked by a New York Times Magazine article portraying Gibson as a traditionalist Catholic opposed to reforms of the Vatican II Council of the 1960s, which among other things rejected the belief that Jews were collectively responsible for the death of Jesus.

The film's producer, Steve McEveety, said that while critics have a right to their opinion, "no one has a right to publicly critique a film that has not even been completed, let alone base their critique on an outdated version of the script which has been illegally obtained."

Icon said it learned in late March that a draft of the script "was taken by an individual referred to as "our Deep Throat" and surreptitiously circulated without permission to members of the interfaith scholars group.

The bishops conference has disavowed any involvement in obtaining the script or in preparing a confidential report on its review by the scholars group.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops has since apologised for their reaction to an unfinished draft of the film and have declared that they will reserve judgment until the finished product is available. The film, which stars Jim Caviezel as Jesus and Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene wrapped in April and features purely Aramaic and Latin dialogue - without subtitles.