Mel Gibson has offered new details about the upcoming The Resurrection of the Christ. The American filmmaker also explained why the movie had to be divided into two parts.
Back in 2004, Gibson directed the biblical drama, The Passion of the Christ. Now, more than two decades later, the sequel will be released as two films. Speaking at the Fan Expo Boston, the director told Collider‘s Steve Weintraub why the movie was being released in two parts. He pointed out the screenplay called for the story to be split, rather than a decision made after filming was completed.
Gibson said, “It had it in the script, but it had a natural breaking point. There’s Part One and Part Two, and they’re distinct. I think they stand alone as individual pieces, but they do complete one another. So that’s good.”
Mel Gibson spent nearly a decade developing the ambitious sequel
The 70-year-old filmmaker clarified that he did not immediately begin developing the ambitious project after The Passion of the Christ. Gibson said he spent 20 years researching the concept and nearly 10 years finalizing the screenplay. Now that the movie is nearing release, the director explained that the story will not follow a linear pattern.
Gibson explained, “There are 17 separate secular historians that attest the same kind of thing. So it’s not a fairy tale, and the object is to make it believable and understandable at the same time, and it’s a very difficult thing to understand. So you can’t just tell the linear story that way. It’s like, okay, you have to juxtapose the actual event against many other actual events in order to grasp the significance of it, so it’s another jigsaw puzzle. It’s not linear.”
According to the latest update from Gibson, filming on both films has been completed. Part One is scheduled for release on May 6, 2027, while Part Two will arrive a year later on May 25, 2028.
