HOLLYWOOD: Mel Gibson Plans Christ Sequel

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Mel Gibson and writer Randall Wallace are working on a sequel to The Passion of the Christ that will tell the story of the resurrection of Jesus, Wallace tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Wallace, nominated for an Academy Award for scripting Gibson’s 1995 best picture Oscar winner Braveheart, on Thursday (reluctantly) confirmed rumors that he has begun to write a script for a story about the resurrection, telling THR that the project is becoming too difficult to keep under wraps.

Wallace was a religion major at Duke University and says the resurrection was a specialty of his. “I always wanted to tell this story,” he says. “The Passion is the beginning and there’s a lot more story to tell.”

The Passion, Gibson’s story of the persecution and crucifixion of Jesus, was released in 2004 by the independent Newmarket Films and earned a whopping $612 million worldwide on a $30 million production budget. Since then, many in Hollywood have presumed a sequel would someday be made, but Gibson has moved on to other projects.