Mel Gibson Shares New Details of Upcoming ‘Resurrection of Christ’ Film: ‘You have to start with the fall of the angels in the firmament’
Director Mel Gibson has shared some new details about his upcoming ‘The Resurrection of Christ’ film, revealing that it took him nearly a decade to write the script because “it’s a very complex and almost impossible to understand subject.” He likewise notes that the movie seeks to answer the question of why Jesus would die for mankind, on account of “We’re just a bunch of f***ed up things.”
Gibson recently announced that the long-delayed production will start filming in 2026 as part of a partnership agreement with Lionsgate, which has worldwide distribution rights. Speaking about the film at a panel at Fan Expo Philadelphia, Gibson reveals
It took me about eight years to write the script for the sequel, if we can call that The Resurrection of Christ, because it’s a very complex and almost impossible to understand subject, so that necessarily you have to underpin it with a great deal of all of salvation history and theology.
It was a very difficult thing to find and synthesize, because you have to understand, firstly, why it matters… You have to think, why is mankind so important in this process? Why are the big realms of good and evil slugging it up for the hearts and minds and souls of mankind? Why us? We’re just a bunch of f***ed up things. We’re imperfect.
You have to ask yourself, why are we important? Why are we making the sandwich? That whole huge story. And I think in order to understand that, you have to, you have to start with the fall of the angels in the firmament, before right at the beginning, is pretty crazy idea, what did that look like? I know what it looks like. It’s not one film, it’s two films, because it’s massive.
Released in 2004 by Director Mel Gibson, the original film grossed 600M worldwide on a $30M budget. It received a mixed response within the Christian community, with many praising it and even using it as an outreach tool, and others attending showings to hand out tracts against it, railing against it for it’s explicit Roman Catholic theology, the inclusion of that weird little demon baby, and the fact that it breaks the second commandment. The sequel has been in production hell for the last decade, and now finally seems ready to release.
While the first film covered the 12 hours leading up to his death, the sequel. which will bring back stars Jim Caviezel as Hesus and Maia Morgenstern as Mary, is expected to cover the days after his death, intercut with scenes from Jesus in Hell and the fall of Lucifer. Gibson previously noted:
It is such a massive undertaking that you can’t do it lightly and you can’t do it quickly. You have to really consider what it is that you need to show in order to be poignant. It can’t be linear; you have to have many things to juxtapose against one another even from different time periods in order to illustrate what something means in a more full way. And I think it’s going to be a real jigsaw puzzle to do.
And I have two scripts right, and one of them is very structured and a very strong script and kind of more what you’d expect. And the other is like an acid trip and because you’re going into other realms and stuff. I mean you’re in hell.. It’s like, you know, you’re watching the angels fall..”
Gibson also told Joe Rogan on his recent podcast appearance that the film would conclude with the death of the last apostle.
[The script is] an acid trip. I’ve never read anything like it. There’s some crazy stuff. In order to tell the story properly you have to start with the fall of the angels. You’re in another realm. You need to go Hell. You need to go to Sheol.
You got to have [Satan]s] origin. I have ideas about how to do that and how to evoke things about to depict that. I’ve been thinking about that for a long time. It’s going to require a lot of planning. I’m not sure I can pull it off. It’s super ambitious, but I’m going to take a crack at it … It’s about trying to find a way in that’s not cheesy or obvious. It’s almost like a magic trick. [The story] goes from the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.