Imagine our surprise when the Hard, Cutting blog pointed out that a just-insane-enough-to-be-true joke we wrote about Mel Gibson's instantly controversial Holocaust project (and we self-quote: "While the baldfaced grab for controversy might seem utterly crass to us, ABC was powerless against the visionary Gibson’s breathtaking pitch for the miniseries’ climactic scene, a Braveheart-style battle with thousands of Jewish and Nazi combatants rushing at each other across an open field.") suddenly became, well, just insane enough to be reported as fact (and verbatim, no less) in a story by the Rupert Murdoch-owned The Australian:

Tentatively titled Flory, the telemovie will tell the true story of Flory Van Beek, a Dutch Jew who survived the Holocaust through the bravery of three Christian families who sheltered her from the Nazis in Holland.

Gibson's Con Artist Productions reportedly clinched the deal with a breathtaking pitch for a climactic "Braveheart-style" battle scene where thousands of Jewish and Nazi combatants rush at each other across an open field.

In the intereset of international cooperation, we invite The Australian's tireless reporters to scan the rest of our site for story ideas, and look forward to tomorrow's hysteria-inducing headline about Angelina Jolie's nefarious plan to invade the capital of Cambodia with an army of deadly, mohawked orphans.

• Disown your dad's denial of the Holocaust, Gibson told [The Australian]
• Nah, Newspaper Budget Cutting Won't Affect Quality At All [Hard, Cutting]
• ABC Presents Mel Gibson’s The Holocaust [Defamer]

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