The actor has made some pretty big statements about the new movie.
Released in February 2004, The Passion Of The Christ has since become one of the most debated movies ever made.
Starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus and directed and co-written by Mel Gibson, the movie was produced on a budget of just $30 million, the film went on to make over $610 million at the box office, making it the biggest foreign language movie of all time until 2017, when it was replaced by Chinese action movie Wolf Warrior 2.
It was also nominated for three Academy Awards, but while it was something of a must-watch, the audience reaction to it was hugely polarising.
There were just as many people who find the film to practically be a religious experience, while others found it to be blatantly antisemitic.
The same split reaction was found among the critics, as it scored 47% on Metacritic, with Variety describing it as “If an age produces the renditions of classic stories that reflect those times, then The Passion Of The Christ, which is violent, contentious, emotional, extreme and highly proficient, must be the Jesus movie for this era”, while Newsweek said “Instead of being moved by Christ’s suffering, or awed by his sacrifice, I felt abused by a filmmaker intent on punishing an audience, for who knows what sins.”
For as long as the original has existed, there has been talk of a sequel, and this week Jim Caviezel has finally confirmed that it is moving forward.
Caviezel told USA Today the following: “There are things that I cannot say that will shock the audience. I won’t tell you how he’s going to go about it. But I’ll tell you this much, the film he’s going to do is going to be the biggest film in history. It’s that good.”
The biggest film in history. That is quite the statement.
The screenwriter is set to be Randall Wallace, the same guy who wrote Braveheart (and also Pearl Harbour), and Caviezel compared cracking the stories of the two: “Braveheart, that’s a film that took a long time to be able to crack. The same thing for Passion. And the same thing for this. He’s finally got it. So that is coming.”
Preliminarily titled The Resurrection, and Caviezel’s description certainly ties in with what Gibson had told Stephen Colbert back when he was promoting Hacksaw Ridge, when he mentioned that the movie would be looking into what happened in the three days between Jesus’ death and his subsequent return, and the film may include scenes set in Hell itself.
There is no set production date yet set for the sequel, but Gibson has at least two action movies to star in this year before he can get behind the camera again.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
