Mel Gibson hopes to start production on a sequel to his 2004 film The Passion Of The Christ next year. The actor and director appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast The Joe Rogan Experience and confirmed that a script for the movie, titled The Resurrection Of The Christhas been written.
“I'm hoping next year sometime,” Gibson told Rogan of his plans. “There's a lot required because it's an acid trip. I've never read anything like it.” He added that he wrote it alongside his brother and screenwriter Randall Wallace over a seven-year period.
“My brother and I and Randall all sort of congregated on this,” the actor said. “So there's some good heads put together, but there's some crazy stuff. And I think in order to really tell the story properly you have to really start with the fall of the angels, which means you're in another place, you're in another realm. You need to go to hell. You need to go to Sheol.”
Gibson confirmed that he plans to re-cast Jim Caviezel in the lead role of Jesus, although he may need to use “a few techniques” like CGI de-aging since more than 20 years have passed since the first film. He described the film as “very ambitious.”
“It's about finding the way in that's not cheesy or too obvious,” he said. “I think I have ideas about how to do that and how to evoke things and emotions in people from the way you depict it and the way you shoot it. So I've been thinking about it for a long time. It's not going to be easy and it's going to require a lot of planning and I'm not entirely sure I can pull it off to tell you the truth, it's super ambitious. But I'll take a crack at it because that's what you got to do, right, walk up to the plate, right?”
Gibson recorded the podcast with Rogan earlier this week. While he was away, his longtime home in Los Angeles was lost in the fires. In an interview on NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas ReportsGibson confirmed that his wife and son were safely evacuated.
“[I was] kind of ill at ease while we were talking, because I knew my neighborhood was on fire,” he said of doing the podcast. “So I thought, 'I wonder if my place is still there.' But when I got home, sure enough, it wasn't there. I went home and I said to myself, well, at least I haven't got any of those pesky plumbing problems anymore.”
While speaking to Rogan, Gibson blamed the fires on California governor Gavin Newsom. “In 2019, I think Newsom said, 'You know, I'm gonna take care of the forests and maintain the forests and do all that kinda stuff,'” Gibson said told Rogan. “He didn't do anything.” He added, “I think all our tax dollars probably went for Gavin's hair gel.”
Gibson's latest film, Flight Riskarrives in theaters Jan. 24. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, and Topher Grace, and marks Gibson's return to director's chair after the acclaim he received for Hacksaw Ridge in 2016, which earned him Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Picture.
