Oscar-winning director Mel Gibson says The Resurrection of the Christ, the upcoming two-part sequel to his 2004 blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, will fill in some of the gaps the Bible leaves out about the life and works of Jesus Christ.
Gibson notes that the Gospels of Mark, Luke, and John are “synoptic” and they give us only a selected few stories about the life of Jesus, leaving much of his existence on earth and his works unspoken, Gibson told the Christian Post.
“If you look at the synoptic Gospels — and they are synoptic, which means they don’t tell you everything,” Mel Gibson said. “And even John says, ‘Y’know, hey, there were many other things [Jesus] said and did which, if they were to be written down, couldn’t fill all the libraries of all the world,’ right? So there’s a lot of stuff that wasn’t written and the Gospels are synoptic.”
The filmmaker went on to say he will make some educated guesses on what Jesus was doing during the times the Bible leaves unexplored, but he won’t “go against” the orthodox story of Christ’s legacy.
“One can look at these things and go, ‘I wonder what was around that?’ and try and analyze those things and make suppositions about what might have been,” the Apocalypto director continued. “Not to go against anything in orthodox teaching but to enhance, I think, what’s there for everyone to see and hopefully they’ll be surprised by some of those revelations.”
Gibson says The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One, which is slated to hit theaters May 6, 2027, and part two will range from the supernatural realms described in the Bible to the earthly realm where Jesus lived, taught, died, and was resurrected.
The Resurrection will carry a $100 million budget per two-part chapter, a number that far exceeds the $30 million budget Gibson had to work with on his 2004 film depicting the Christ’s crucifixion. The Jim Caviezel-starring epic went on to make $370 million at the domestic box office ($610 million worldwide) and became a smash hit.
“Of course, we had more funding to play with, so you have more toys, more tools, and you’re able to do bigger and better things with it,” Gibson noted.
From what is being reported, those “toys and tools” are being put to good use as the films will feature segments showing the Angels fall from grace in the heavens.
“There’s some crazy stuff,” Gibson said in an interview last year, Deadline reported. “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 (the Old Testament underworld of) Sheol.”
“I mean, you’ll be in the firmament before the creation,” Gibson explained. “You’ll be in the Hell of the just, and then you’ll be in the Hell of the damned. And so, it jumps around a little bit. It doesn’t just stay on the planet here. It gets around.”
“I think that these films will be even more of an inspiring nature, because you get to see all the happier bits, and then not so happy bits,” he said. “I mean, it wasn’t all beer and Skittles for the apostles; they had to go through some stuff, but they triumph, and so it should be inspiring, uplifting,” Gibson concluded. “And I hope that the audience can see and feel that, that it was worth it.”
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