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A report this week said that actor/director Mel Gibson is completing work on multiple drafts of a follow-up film to his “The Passion of the Christ,” with filming set to begin in the spring. Gibson, as director and producer, has for years been working on “The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection,” the follow-up to his 2004 film, which grossed more than $600 million worldwide on a $30 million budget.
“Gibson has been hard at work on the screenplay with ‘Braveheart’ screenwriter Randall Wallace,” Veteran film journalist Jordan Ruimy said, according to CBN News.
“There have already been six drafts,” Ruimy added. “‘Resurrection’ would focus on the twenty-four hours encompassing Jesus’ passion and the events that occurred three days between his crucifixion and resurrection.”
The outlet reported further that Jim Caviezel would be reprising his role of Jesus along with several other original stars like Maia Morgenstern as Mary, Christo Jivkov as John, and Francesco De Vito as Peter.
In 2016, Gibson told Greg Laurie at a Harvest Crusade that he wanted to take his time in developing the story, the Christian Post reported.
“It’s called The Resurrection. Of course, that’s a very big subject and it needs to be looked at because we don’t want to just do a simple rendering of it — you know, read what happened,” Gibson said.
“But in order to read it, experience and explore probably deeper meanings of what it’s about, it’s going to take some doing and Randall Wallace is up to the task,” the actor added. “He is also, as well as a brilliant writer, he is a great director. He directed ‘We Were Soldiers’ and ‘Heaven is for Real’ and stuff. So, he is a good writer and director.”
Around the same time, Wallace told The Hollywood Reporter that he always wanted to tell the story of the Resurrection.
“The evangelical community considers ‘The Passion’ the biggest movie ever out of Hollywood, and they kept telling us that they think a sequel will be even bigger,” he said.
“I always wanted to tell this story,” Wallace added. “‘The Passion’ is the beginning, and there’s a lot more story to tell.”
At the time as well, Wallace said that no studio had stepped up to finance the follow-up but he added that several people were interested in doing so. “It’s too early to talk money,” he adds. “This is such a huge and sacred subject.”
But, he added, “The evangelical community considers The Passion the biggest movie ever out of Hollywood, and they kept telling us that they think a sequel will be even bigger.”
Earlier this week, the Daily Mail noted that the first ‘Passion’ film was controversial with some:
While the film was no doubt a financial success, the Mel and his team did weather their fair share of negative critical reviews.
Some critics slammed the film for its use of excessive violence, while others claimed that the film deviated too dramatically from the biblical story upon which it was based.
The film was also slammed by some viewers as portraying antisemitic subject matter.
Christian actors, meanwhile, have found tough sledding in secular Hollywood, but not all of them have been deterred by it, including actor Neal McDonough, who made a name for himself playing bad guys in films.
McDonough, best known for recent parts in films like HBO’s “Band of Brothers” World War II drama, Yellowstone, among others, said the ostracizing he received for being a Christian led him to found his own film company.
He said that he was essentially blacklisted in Hollywood in 2010, leading him to lose “basically everything” after being fired from ABC’s “Scoundrels” TV show for refusing to go against his faith and do certain kinds of scenes, like kissing and sex scenes.
The actor went on to say that it was his faith that kept him going through that rough period in his life.
“I remember falling to my knees and saying, ‘God, why have you forgotten about me? Why am I being punished so much?’” He recalled. “And as soon as those words came out of my mouth, I realized what self-absorbed questions those were.”
“God has given me so much. We all experience challenges in our lives. I should be grateful – and thankful – for all the blessings I’m given,” he said, noting that he loves his “wife more than I love my profession” and saw doing love and sex scenes as insulting to her and his belief system.
