Mel Gibson Reveals Plans for a 'Passion of the Christ' Sequel
The Mel Gibson Rehabilitation Tour is now in full swing. The actor-director is currently starring in the (relatively well-received) action saga Blood Father, preparing to debut his first directorial effort in 10 years with this fall’s Hacksaw Ridge, and setting up plans to work with Sean Penn on The Professor and the Madman. Its no surprise then, that Gibson is aiming to return to the blockbuster holy material he first visited over a decade ago.
During an interview with pastor Greg Laurie at last weekend’s evangelical SoCal Harvest event, Gibson revealed that he’s getting to work on a follow-up to 2004’s The Passion of the Christ, which detailed the last days — and gory crucifixion — of Jesus (Jim Caviezel). The focus of this sequel, as one might guess, would be on Christ rising from the dead:
“We’re talking about that. Of course that’s a huge undertaking, and it’s not The Passion 2 — it’s called The Resurrection. 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. I mean, we can all read what happened, but in order to really experience and explore probably deeper meanings of what it’s about, it’s gonna take some doing.”
Watch the interview below:
Given that Gibson’s biblical work remains the highest-grossing R-rated film in U.S. history (with a $370.2 million tally), this isn’t altogether surprising news — except for the fact that The Passion’s portrait of Jews (and its extreme bloodshed) gave birth to a considerable backlash against both the film and its director. Nonetheless, Gibson will once again team with Randall Wallace — writer of Braveheart, director of We Were Soldiers — to pen a script for the film. His upcoming Hacksaw Ridge debuts in theaters on Nov. 4.
