Mel Gibson is reportedly planning to begin filming a sequel to his 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ” in the coming months.
Titled “The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection,” the film will see Jim Caviezel return to the role of Jesus.
The original film was a massive success, grossing over $612 million on a budget of $39 million, and ranking as one of the top 10 highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time.
Gibson has long expressed his desire to make a sequel, saying, “I always wanted to tell this story…The Passion is the beginning, and there’s a lot more story to tell.”
And in a 2016 interview, he stated that he had “started work” on the sequel, which he described as “a very big subject and it needs to be looked at because we don’t want to just do a simple rendering of it.”
Caviezel, who suffered through physical pain and injury while filming the original, has also said that he would be willing to return for a sequel.
In a previous interview, he noted, “As I went down, the cross…it actually started to rip out of the ground, the wood was so old. And I fell, and I had the nails in my hands, and I couldn’t get up.”
Despite the challenges he faced while filming “The Passion of the Christ,” Caviezel indicated that he would be willing to go through it all again for the sequel, saying, “I’d do it in a second.”
It is not yet known when “The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection” will be released.