Mel Gibson Plans ‘The Passion of the Christ’ Follow-Up ‘The Resurrection’
In 2004, Mel Gibson created The Passion of the Christ – the highest grossing R-rated movie of [...]
In 2004, Mel Gibson created The Passion of the Christ – the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. Now, the actor-turned-filmmaker is seriously considering undertaking its follow-up The Resurrection.
Gibson made waves in Hollywood after the release of The Passion of the Christ. The film brought about controversy with some crowds, but resonated deeply with the religious community and raked in an impressive $611.8 million worldwide. Gibson understands The Resurrection wouldn’t be a sequel in the common sense and intends to take great care in the film’s planning and development.
"We're talking about that. Of course, that is a huge undertaking," Gibson said in an interview with evangelist Greg Laurie. "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… 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."
Cinema has changed since The Passion of the Christ was released. We now live in the era of superhero films, but Gibson claims The Passion of the Christ was in fact the "ultimate superhero film."
"Faith is a real thing. I think that often times, I made the ultimate superhero film in The Passion of the Christ. Someone like Desmond Doss is also a superhero and real superheroes don't wear spandex and they don't have a lot of 3-D special effects. But, they do operate on a higher level, on a supernatural level. They actually look and appeal to something greater than themselves and then they do something super human."
Gibson's interview raises several questions. Will he actually follow through and bring The Resurrection to the big screen? Will it be as successful as the Passion of the Christ? But perhaps the most pressing question about this would-be follow-up film is whether Jim Caviezel will return to star as Jesus Christ.