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Mel Gibson’s Resurrection retelling is no longer rumour.

The maverick Australian filmmaker who broke box office expectations after breaking rank with Hollywood by filming Passion of the Christ is ready to do it all again.

Last week, Cinecittà Studios’ new CEO Manuela Cacciamani confirmed filming for The Resurrection of Christ will begin in August.

“Some production details are not available,” she told the Italian finance magazine Il Sole 24 Ore.

This is “because there’s a lot covered by a confidentiality agreement.”

However, Cacciamani said,

“I can confirm that the next film directed by Mel Gibson, produced by Icon Productions, The Resurrection of Christ, will be shot entirely in Cinecittà starting in August.”

The studio also confirmed the news on X.

Adding a little more detail, they said the film is part of Cacciamani’s vision of reviving the iconic 1930s Italian studio located in Via Tuscolana, Rome.

Gibson’s Passion of the Christ was filmed at Cinecittà in 2004 using the studio’s four hectares of land recreating Ancient Rome.

The Easter retelling is still the most successful independent film of all time, taking in close to 614 million dollars.

This didn’t just vindicate Gibson; the outpouring of support from the public embarrassed the naysayers and made his 25-million-dollar budget look like petty cash.

Jesus and the Apostles

His return to Cinecittà for The Resurrection of Christ hints at the backbone of what is a closely guarded script.

Based on hints dropped by Gibson in his February tell-all with Joe Rogan, the Resurrection recount will almost certainly cover the deaths of the Apostles.

Gibson isn’t playing around.

He told Rogan he “regarded the Gospels as verifiable history,” adding that some people say, ‘Oh, it’s a fairy tale; Jesus never existed,’ but He did.”

“There are other accounts — verifiable historical accounts — outside the biblical ones that also bear this up,” Gibson continued.

“The other aspect is that all the evangelists — the apostles — who went out; every single one of those guys died rather than deny their belief.

“That’s part of what I’m doing, showing people that nobody – no one — dies for a lie.”

Digging deeper, Gibson, unpacking his reasons for the film, said Jesus gets murdered in public, then “gets back up three days later under His own power.”

“Buddha didn’t do that s***, right? I believe it happened.”

Reassuring Rogan, Gibson said as he’s gotten older, his beliefs have been validated “through intellect, through reading, and putting together accounts.”

“Occurrences like the Shroud of Turin being verified,” gave additional weight to the Resurrection.

Hinting that the Shroud of Turin could be featured in the film, Gibson told Rogan he believed the shroud was genuine.

Technology that could fake the shroud’s imprint doesn’t match the dating. This took an intense atomic level of light to create, he remarked.

Team Effort

Gibson said the film’s script took seven years to write.

He co-wrote The Resurrection of the Christ with his brother Donal and Braveheart writer Randall Wallace.

Wallace, when asked about the screenplay, said,

“The Resurrection of Christ is the Mount Everest of all human stories. That’s the story we need to tell.”

The story will follow the Gospels, and walk with the Acts of the Apostles into Emmaus — while covering the intense spiritual warfare that was taking place behind the scenes.

Mel Gibson pairing up with his brother is somewhat of a surprise.

Donal, an actor in his own right, claims he was unjustly blacklisted alongside Gibson after his superstar brother broke with Hollywoke to make Passion of the Christ.

Donal, who played Stewart in Braveheart, had nothing to do with The Passion, and yet says he got canned when Hollywood cancelled Mel.

He has publicly expressed frustration with Mel Gibson about unfair treatment, and a sense of abandonment.

Those bridges apparently mended, Gibson described the co-written script as being non-linear and big picture.

This approach was necessary because the Resurrection triggers questions that make the event difficult to remake, he explained.

In a separate interview, Gibson appeared to build on this, calling the script “an acid trip”.

According to IMDB, Passion actors Francesco De Vito (Peter) and Maia Morgenstern, who played Mary, are both on board.

As is Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus.

When commenting on The Resurrection of the Christ in an interview with Shawn Ryan, Caviezel cryptically said, “It’s likely to be two films.”

Either way, he added, “This will be the biggest film in history.”

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Empty tomb image courtesy of Unsplash.