Mel Gibson has sincerely went the Tom Laughlin route(the same Tom did with "Billy jack" and "Trial Of Billy Jack":anybody remember those slow moving,self-righteous 70s karate hippie flicks?!) by self-distributing(with help from a big name studio secretly hiding their identity) his ultra-gory Jesus film.
I'm sure that Tom Laughlin will take credit for Mel's brave independent release move,saying that he long ago innovated it,and all.