Gibson gets behind family sitcom

Gibson and his wife have seven children - six of them boys

Actor Mel Gibson is co-developing a family sitcom inspired by his experience of fathering six boys.

He is working with US network ABC on scripts about a working single father raising five teenage boys on his own.

The Braveheart star would be "an endless source of material" for the show, said a spokesman for the producers.

Gibson is also working with producer Aaron Spelling on The Clubhouse, a coming-of-age drama for CBS.

Emmy winners Julie Thacker and Mike Scully, best known for their writing work for The Simpsons, created the ABC comedy.

Pitched

The husband-and-wife duo will executive produce the project with Gibson's production company Icon.

Thacker and Scully - whose combined family has five girls - came up with the idea and pitched it to Gibson, a friend. He liked the premise and came on board.

"Mel, Mike and Julie have come up with a hilarious show that portrays the rough-and-tumble and noisy truth about raising boys," said David Kissinger, president of Universal TV Productions.

Mel Gibson (right) directed and co-wrote The Passion

Icon is also developing a drama about a family man-turned-government assassin - and another about a high-flying lawyer who gives up his playboy lifestyle to raise his six-month-old niece.

Gibson has been embroiled in controversy about his film The Passion Of Christ which focuses on the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus.

Directed and co-written by the actor, it has been accused by Jewish groups of "portraying Jews in a negative way".