Passion of the Christ 2: Mel Gibson ‘begins filming Resurrection’ this year | Films | Entertainment
Almost 20 years after the release of The Passion of the Christ, the film’s original director, Mel Gibson, is about to start working on its sequel. The Passion of the Christ 2 – which is also called The Resurrection – does not yet have a cinematic release date, but filming is due to start in the “next few months”.
The new report, which comes from Newsmax, claims Gibson will be returning to the director’s chair in the next few months to continue the story of the Catholic messiah, Jesus Christ.
Gibson has previously spoken openly about his desire to direct a sequel to the 2004 movie, but this is the first advancement in the movie’s production in well over a decade.
Back in 2016, he confirmed he had “started work” on the sequel. He said: “Of course, that is a huge undertaking, and you know, it’s not the Passion 2. 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.”
He added: “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. 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.”
The Biblical journey would not be complete without its main character, and reports add that Jim Caviezel will be returning to the role of Jesus in the sequel.
It’s surprising Caviezel is returning to the role, considering he went through so much hardship during the filming of the first Passion of the Christ movie. On top of being literally struck by lightning during filming, he endured physical pain and bloodshed during some major scenes.
He once revealed: “As I went down, the cross… it actually struck my head and buried my head in the sand. And I bit through my tongue.”
The American actor added that some scenes in the final movie were complemented by his real blood. “In the tape,” he reminisced. “You’ll see streams of blood coming down from my lip. That’s actually my own blood.”
Randall Wallace has also spoken out about his desire to write a follow-up movie to The Passion of the Christ.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “I always wanted to tell this story. The Passion is the beginning and there’s a lot more story to tell.”
The American screenwriter noted that his fans believe the sequel will be “even bigger” than The Passion of the Christ.
He explained: “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.”
When The Passion of the Christ was released it cinemas it quickly became one of the highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time.
After being made on a meagre $30 million it earned a whopping $612 million at the box office.
The Passion of the Christ is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now.
