Mel Gibson working on ‘The Passion of the Christ’ sequel
Los Angeles, June 10 (IANS) Actor-filmmaker Mel Gibson and writer Randall Wallace are teaming up for a follow-up to the 2004 biblical blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ” that will tell the story of the resurrection of Jesus.
Wallace has confirmed rumours that he has started writing a script for the sequel as the project is becoming too difficult to keep under wraps, reports hollywoodreporter.com.
Gibson and Wallace began to get serious about the sequel while they were working on the film “Hacksaw Ridge”.
Wallace, who was a religion major at Duke University, said: “I always wanted to tell this story. ‘The Passion…’ is the beginning and there is a lot more story to tell.”
According to him, the demand in the Christian community influenced Gibson’s and his willingness to do another film.
“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,” Wallace said.
No studio or financial backing has been lined up for the project yet, but Wallace said some financiers are interested in investing.
“It is too early to talk money. This is such a huge and sacred subject,” he added.
Directed by Gibson, “The Passion of the Christ”, which starred Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ, earned a whopping $612 million worldwide on a $30 million production budget. It is the highest grossing religious film, the second highest-grossing R-rated film in US and the highest grossing non-English-language film of all time. It also received three nominations at the 77th Academy Awards.