Mel Gibson‘s post-scandal career has mostly seen him on screen in a variety of roles that play off his rough-around-the-edges public persona, perhaps to greatest effect in this month’s “Blood Father.” But shortly at the Venice Film Festival, he’ll be unveiling his first directorial effort since “Apocalypto,” the war drama “Hacksaw Ridge,” and after that, he might be returning to continue the story from his biggest movie ever: “The Passion Of The Christ.”
Earlier this year, screenwriter Randall Wallace spilled the beans that work had been started on a follow-up to “The Passion Of The Christ.” Gibson has mostly been silent on the subject, but appearing this past weekend at the SoCal Harvest evangelical event, the actor/director shared that some details about the project, including the title, which still seems to be in the early days of figuring out what it will be beyond Jesus rolling back the rock from his grave and fulfilling his role as the Saviour.
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“Of course, that is a huge undertaking,” Gibson said about the movie. “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,” Gibson 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.”
Essentially, it sounds like Gibson wants to make “The Resurrection” as much of a deeply felt and visceral experience as “The Passion Of The Christ” was (for better or worse). And it’s certainly an interesting notion, as Gibson would be pivoting from depicting sacrifice to salvation, which is arguably a trickier sensation to transmit. As for whether or not Jim Caviezel will return as Jesus, there’s no word yet, but I can’t imagine he’d turn it down if it came his way.
Check out the full talk with Gibson below, and see “Hacksaw Ridge” when it opens on November 4th. [Christian Post]