Talk about setting high expectations!
Actor Jim Caviezel recently made some pretty bold claims to USA Today about the Passion of the Christ sequel Mel Gibson is working on.
“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.”
While he said he couldn’t reveal details about Gibson’s plans for the film, in which he will be reprising the role of Jesus Christ, he said people won’t be disappointed.
“There are things that I cannot say that will shock the audience. It’s great. Stay tuned.”
Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ was self-funded for around $45 million and brought in over $611 million worldwide, making it the most successful independent film ever, the highest grossing religious film ever, and the highest grossing R-rated film ever at the time.
It was first revealed publicly that Gibson was working on a Passion sequel in June 2016. In September of that year, Gibson told an evangelical church that the movie would likely be called The Resurrection. And then in November, Gibson appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and revealed more of his plans for the film.
“It’s more than a single event, it’s an amazing event,” Gibson explained. “And to underpin it with the things around it is really the story, to sort of enlighten what that means.”
Colbert then asked whether there would be any bad guys in the film. “There are,” Gibson answered cryptically, “they’re in another realm.”
Gibson then gave another hint: “Sure, you’re going all over the place. What happened in three days?” Colbert responded by quoting from the Apostles’ Creed, “He descended into hell…” as Gibson confirmed that’s what he meant.
“Wow,” Colbert said with surprise, “so you’d actually do a little inferno…”
“I’m not sure, but it’s worth thinking about, isn’t it,” Gibson clarified. “Get your imagination going, right?”
“Yeah sure. I’d never thought about that,” Colbert said. “Yeah, there’s a lot of action happening off-screen in the Bible of Jesus descending into the dead.”
“Sure, there’s a lot happening around us right now…”
What do you think about the movie plans so far? Let us know in the comments!
[See also: Musical Composer for “The Passion” Reveals He Suffered Satanic Attacks]
[See also: Jim Caviezel’s Stunning Testimony from Playing Jesus in “The Passion”]