The Malibu magic is back again.
The third time around for Mel Gibson’s archi-text-ural finds the property with a slightly lower ticket price: $14.5 million. The home first hit the market during the summer of 2017, when it was tagged at $17.5 million; a year hence found it at $14.9 million. Gibson paid $11.5 million for it, and purchased it from David Duchovny and Tea Leoni in the wake of the success of ‘Apocalypto’.
The 6,578 square-footer is privately ensconced in the hills of Malibu; the lot is large enough to provide a genuine buffer zone, giving the property as a whole the feel of a sanctuary. Walking paths meander through the desert flora.
The house itself is a curious amalgamation of rustic styles, with Western, European, and farmhouse design elements featuring prominently. Following a fire in the 1990’s, the home was rebuilt with reclaimed materials. As it stands today, it is expressed most forcefully with timber, brick, rusticated stone and leaded glass windows. The occasional period or period-style fixture hammers home the point, as is the case with the Spanish Colonial chandelier in the great room.
At its most rustic, the residence is nearly delirious: the raw timber turret that houses the staircase is as fundamentally earthy as any 19th-century Western flourish. The library boasts timber built-ins, a fireplace and a rail ladder. The master suite delves fully into postmodernism, though, with a series of periods and styles all voiced to comprise a cerebral—if not particularly restful—vision of a bedroom.
The home’s 5.5 acres are as much of a draw as the house itself. On the lot are numerous stone walls, a recreational pool and lap pool, and a guest cottage.
Will ‘The Professor and the Madman’ ever hit theaters? Perhaps this summer. The film stars Gibson, Sean Penn, and Natalie Dormer.
