Courtesy of Photofest.
Jesus Christ, a bad movie might be on the way to resurrection.
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.
[…]
Rumors swirled anew last month when Gibson was a surprise guest at Liberty University’s graduation ceremony to do an advance screening of Hacksaw Ridge and was asked about a Passion follow-up. He expressed interest in making a sequel but was not specific about his involvement. Wallace says demand in the Christian community influenced his and Gibson’s willingness to do another film.
“The evangelical community considers The Passion the biggest movie ever out of Hollywood, and they kept telling us that they think a sequel will be even bigger,” Wallace says.
No studio or financial backing has been lined up for the project, which is still in the early script stage. But Wallace indicates there are several financiers interested in investing. “It’s too early to talk money,” he adds. “This is such a huge and sacred subject.”
Oh, it’s such a huge and sacred subject, we don’t want to be crass, but hey, let’s do this and make a fucktonne of money, yeah?
Oh yes, and there’s a reboot of Ben Hur, too. All properly faithy and stuff. Anyone surprised Morgan Freeman is in this one?
Paramount Pictures and MGM are gearing up to release the reboot of “Ben-Hur” in August, and in a new faith trailer, viewers are given a glimpse into the impact Jesus Christ made on the fictional character Ben-Hur while an exclusive song by for King & Country plays in the background.
[…]
Writer John Ridley maintained that he had similar reservations while working on the script. “The most ardent fans of the 1959 film might find it blasphemous to revisit it in any form, but they forget these characters existed 80 years prior. People only tend to remember Charlton Heston and the chariot race, but Judah Ben-Hur is such a rich, classic character. He’s a wronged man seeking revenge and redemption. Compelling characters like Ben Hur and Messala are the reason we can return to these stories again and again, so I wanted to make the personal conflict between these former friends just as tense and memorable as the climactic chariot race,” he added.
Yep, it will be great, with added JESUS, JESUS, JESUS! Full story here.
. . . viewers are given a glimpse into the impact the fictional character Jesus Christ made on the fictional character Ben-Hur . . .
There, fixed it for them.
Okay. I thought there already was a movie (a la Roman-era mystery) about the resurrection of Jesus, but okay… I guess, given the way things go these days, this one’ll be a trilogy.
Regarding Ben-Hur, umm okay. When I was a kid, I was rather taken by it (desert! chariots! sea battles! etc.!), and the religious elements were pretty downplayed (or at least seemed comparatively insignificant at that age).
Anyway.
Then I finally read the book a couple of years ago. What a piece of religious trash. I don’t even know what else to say, but it was a disappointment. To be expected, I suppose.
Then I saw the trailers for the new movie. And seriously, they’re going to draw even stronger parallels of Ben-Hur = christ-like figure? The redeemed Jew? And for all his facial hair, the new Ben-Hur is far too scarless and well-kempt to be believable -- frankly, he looks way too young for the amount of adventures he has to go through just to get to the chariot race. And they still couldn’t find actors of Middle Eastern descent for the roles (except for Esther), apparently.
Worst of all, according to wiki:
Is it going to be three and a half hours long, too?
rq:
I expect there’s going to be much dissing of this ‘reboot’. One of the reasons the ’59 version is so revered is because of the rather intense homoerotic tensions, and the never ending upset of Heston when Gore Vidal revealed that he spoke to Boyd about the characters having been lovers as teenagers, and that subtext needing to be expressed in the movie. Heston was never told about it.
Caine
Yeah, poor Heston. I wonder if any of that tension will be carried over -- though from the looks of the trailer, probably not.
rq:
No, this is all about making the Christians happy. Can’t get any queer in the christianity. And, they don’t have the splendid Gore Vidal to be wonderfully subversive, either.
Caine
I am a fan of that particular director’s older work (spec., Night Watch and Day Watch), but I wasn’t impressed with Wanted and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, so no, I’m not holding out for anything subversive this time around, either. Esp. since they’re so open about pleasing the christians. (But honestly, that homoerotic vibe just makes so much sense!!)
Ben-Hur is a good movie. A bit wooden in spots and dated, by modern schematic standards perhaps, but a good story. I could see a remake as being worth doing given advances in technology with a few small changes to meet modern sensibilities.
That said, it looks like this is being put up as a way of essentially retooling the Christian message with an eye toward recruitment. As if the real reason Christianity is failing has nothing to do with the religion itself, with its iron-age morality and mentality that fails to find traction in modern lives, rather it simply hasn’t been properly presented in a sufficiently compelling theatrical presentation. When it is presented correctly those pews will fill, and stay full. Because everyone will want to be a Christian.
By that logic the problem with Nazism wasn’t its murderous philosophy and inhuman cruelty in pursuit of desired ends, no, the problem was that it lacked a really good movie presenting the advantages of the system in a positive light.
Lorn:
Well said.
Act 2, Scene 3
Jesus [direct to camera]: Doomed are the meek. You want my blessings? Be born wealthy and abuse the shit out of everyone else. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, it gave me a right old laugh.
Oh, that awkward moment when you thought you were looking at a current post. Sorry for the necroage.
Hahahahaha, oh no worries! There are people still working through Affinity from page one, bless ’em. I appreciate people reading and commenting, I don’t care about the date.