By Lillie Jaenchen
Mel Gibson’s THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHRIST, a follow up to his 2004 PASSION OF THE CHRIST, cast Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen as Jesus, replacing Jim Caviezel.
Cuban actress Mariela Garriga will now play Mary Magdalene, taking the place of Monica Bellucci.
Filming for RESURRECTION began last week, according to Variety, at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios. The ensemble cast has been entirely replaced.
Kasia Smutniak will play Mary, Pier Luigi Pasino plays Peter and Riccardo Scamarcio appears as Pontius Pilate. Rupert Everett will have a “unspecified small but important role.”
Related: THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
In April, Caviezel expressed his interest in the role of Jesus, sounding like he was set to return for RESURRECTION.
“I want to enjoy this one more than I did the other one,” he said on the “Arroyo Grande” podcast comparing the new project to the 2004 movie. “On the other one, I was concerned that it was not in Aramaic. I said, ‘We’re not doing this.’ Well, that was a different world. But I really do trust what [Gibson] adds.”
However, because RESURRECTION takes place just three days after Christ’s crucifixion, a source said it “made sense to recast the whole film.”
The source close to the production told Variety, “They would have had to do all this CGI stuff, all this digital stuff — de-aging and all that — that would have been very costly.”
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST debuted in theaters on Feb. 25, 2004, and surpassed $600 million globally. The Hollywood Reporter said it was the highest-grossing R-rated movie domestically until last year. It earned three Oscar nominations.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHRIST will be split into two movies. PART ONE will hit theaters on Good Friday, March 26, 2027, while PART TWO will arrive on Ascension Day, May 6, 2027.
Both parts will be produced by Gibson and his Icon Productions partner, Bruce Davey. They are joined by Lionsgate.
Gibson spoke about THE RESURRECTION on Joe Rogan’s podcast earlier this year, describing it as an “acid trip.”
“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,” he told Rogan. “You need to go to hell. You need to go to Sheol.”
“It’s about finding the way in that’s not cheesy or too obvious. 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,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy, and it’s going to require a lot of planning and I’m not wholly sure I can pull it off; to tell you the truth, it’s super ambitious.”
Though viewers might be disappointed that Caviezel won’t play Jesus again, they can be sure that Gibson has the movie’s best interests in mind with the new cast.
Read Next: From Jesus to Herod: Jim Caviezel Unrecognizable in New Role
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