Jesus Christ, a bad movie might be on the way to resurrection.
Mel Gibson and writer Randall Wallace are working on a sequel to The Passion of the Christ that will tell the story of the resurrection of Jesus, Wallace tells The Hollywood Reporter.
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Rumors swirled anew last month when Gibson was a surprise guest at Liberty University’s graduation ceremony to do an advance screening of Hacksaw Ridge and was asked about a Passion follow-up. He expressed interest in making a sequel but was not specific about his involvement. Wallace says demand in the Christian community influenced his and Gibson’s 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 says.
No studio or financial backing has been lined up for the project, which is still in the early script stage. But Wallace indicates there are several financiers interested in investing. “It’s too early to talk money,” he adds. “This is such a huge and sacred subject.”
Oh, it’s such a huge and sacred subject, we don’t want to be crass, but hey, let’s do this and make a fucktonne of money, yeah?
Oh yes, and there’s a reboot of Ben Hur, too. All properly faithy and stuff. Anyone surprised Morgan Freeman is in this one?
Paramount Pictures and MGM are gearing up to release the reboot of “Ben-Hur” in August, and in a new faith trailer, viewers are given a glimpse into the impact Jesus Christ made on the fictional character Ben-Hur while an exclusive song by for King & Country plays in the background.
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Writer John Ridley maintained that he had similar reservations while working on the script. “The most ardent fans of the 1959 film might find it blasphemous to revisit it in any form, but they forget these characters existed 80 years prior. People only tend to remember Charlton Heston and the chariot race, but Judah Ben-Hur is such a rich, classic character. He’s a wronged man seeking revenge and redemption. Compelling characters like Ben Hur and Messala are the reason we can return to these stories again and again, so I wanted to make the personal conflict between these former friends just as tense and memorable as the climactic chariot race,” he added.
Yep, it will be great, with added JESUS, JESUS, JESUS! Full story here.