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<\/a><\/p>\nRisen<\/a><\/i> \u2014 which stars Joseph Fiennes as a fictitious Roman officer who goes looking for the missing body of Jesus \u2014 is out on DVD and Blu-Ray today. Last week I had a chance to speak to Patrick Aiello, the producer who first started developing the film nearly a decade ago, and his brother Paul, who co-wrote the script.<\/p>\n What follows is a slightly edited transcript of our conversation. You can also click here<\/a> for links to my other stories on the film, including my interview with Fiennes.<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n There was a story in Variety<\/i><\/a> back in 2007, about a movie that you were going to write, Paul, called Risen: The Story of the First Easter<\/i>, and at the time it was reported that it was going to be a story centred on Peter leading up to Pentecost. Here we are nine years later and we\u2019ve got a movie called Risen<\/i>, co-written by you, and it\u2019s a story about somebody else leading up to the Ascension. So can you talk about what the earlier idea for the film was like, and how that changed over the years?<\/b><\/p>\n Paul Aiello: Well, the original idea was based on this: the story was the same, it was starting at the darkest moment of Christianity, which was the Crucifixion, and moving towards the light. And in the original first draft of the script, I had Peter \u2014 and of course they put that in the press because nobody knew who Clavius was \u2014 but Clavius was in the first draft of the script. So the idea was, at the Crucifixion, Peter and the disciples were at an all-time low, and the Clavius character, who was brought in to replace the centurion who left at the crucifixion, was at an all-time high, and he couldn\u2019t care less about these people. He didn\u2019t even know who they were, of course. And the story went on from there. <\/p>\n When Kevin [Reynolds] came in to direct the film, he decided, \u201cYou know what? Let\u2019s just centre the movie on Clavius and bring Peter in at the point where they cross.\u201d But the script he read had Peter in it, in the beginning. And quite frankly, when we first started showing people the movie, everyone thought the Clavius character arc was so powerful, and no one had ever seen that before, and no one had ever thought about the investigation and looking for the body and all that. The director really said, \u201cYou know, let\u2019s really focus on this one character,\u201d and that really is the only major difference in the story \u2014 and you know, I liked having Peter in it, but he said, \u201cNo, we know what Peter did. Let\u2019s watch this guy, and then when Peter comes in, he\u2019ll go with him.\u201d And then, because the movie then became about Clavius, there was no reason to go forward with the Pentecost. And this happens with a lot of films, I\u2019m sure you know that: he essentially took a piece out of the script and said, \u201cLet\u2019s concentrate on this,\u201d and that\u2019s what the film became.<\/p>\n So Clavius was always in the story, then?<\/b><\/p>\n Paul: Correct. He was always the guy that came and buried the body, and he was always that guy. So when they looked at it as a piece of material that would maybe capture the imagination of an audience, it was like, \u201cWe don\u2019t know who this guy is. This would be more interesting.\u201d And that\u2019s where he pushed it down that road of \u201clet\u2019s follow this man.\u201d But yeah, of course, he was always in there, yeah.<\/p>\n Of course, it takes a lot of time to get a film made, and you talk about people not thinking about the investigation the Romans did and all that. Between the original idea for this film and the film finally coming out, we have<\/i> seen other things like, for example, last year, there was A.D. The Bible Continues<\/a><\/i>, which actually had a whole episode<\/a> devoted to the search for the body. Did it concern you that people might be beating you to the punch, as it were?<\/b><\/p>\n Patrick Aiello: No. We were ahead of them by years in our development; in other words, the script had been finalized a few years prior and the movie was pretty much in production, I think, when that premiered. But it\u2019s a little unavoidable. And you know, material gets shown around town, because you\u2019re sending the screenplay to talent and actors and so forth, so it\u2019s possible they saw the idea and so forth. And it\u2019s also very possible that this happened! And it\u2019s an idea that people went, \u201cOh! Yeah, I see that, that\u2019s possible.\u201d So it\u2019s nice that they went for it and did it, because it certainly warmed up the audience to the possibility that an investigation actually took place. So if anything, it was a helping hand.<\/p>\n You started this project back when The Passion of the Christ<\/a><\/i> was brand new, and it took a long time to make the film, so by the time you got around to making it almost a decade later, were you surprised that there was still interest in this material, so long after The Passion<\/i>?<\/b><\/p>\n Paul: My inspiration for the film was The Passion of the Christ<\/i>, the very last scene, where he stands up and walks out into the world<\/a>. That was my inspiration to tell this part of the story. Films are hard to get made, and a lot of films take ten years to be made, because there are so many people you have to convince, and Patrick finally got Mickey Liddell at LD Entertainment to read the script, and he was on board with this, and then it takes time to get directors and actors.<\/p>\n Patrick:<\/b> In addition to what Paul said, we weren\u2019t in a rush to make this movie. If anything, The Passion<\/i> showed that the audience for the film, worldwide, is there. We took our time and methodically put together the film, piece by piece, as you would a house, and in doing that, we hand-selected our elements, that being our filmmaker, our cast, locations, composer, editor, all the way down the line \u2014 and in moving methodically, carefully, those pieces had to fit together perfectly, and you\u2019re witness to the end result, and [so is] the audience that saw it, and now the DVD and the video-on-demand audience. So it was just a very methodical process, and we were in no rush. We took our time and did so with great care, because we knew the audience was there. And in making a piece like this, a film, you have to get it right. And Paul and I are both Christians, and we needed to make sure that the known spine of the story was intact and would see the light of day, so it wouldn\u2019t get screwed up, and we had to basically manage that whole process. So it takes time, and that\u2019s why it took so long. But we\u2019re glad we took our time, because it came out beautifully.<\/p>\n I understand there are going to be some deleted scenes on the Blu-Ray, which I have not yet had a chance to see, and when I interviewed Joseph Fiennes<\/a> a few months ago, we talked about a subplot that was deleted from the film involving his character\u2019s Jewish mistress<\/a>, and there may be other things that got dropped along the way. Was there anything that ended up being cut from the film<\/a> that you really wish could have gotten in there?<\/b><\/p>\n Patrick: It was only a few scenes, I think there were three or four at the very most that fell away. And they did deal specifically with Joseph Fiennes\u2019 character\u2019s mistress. But ultimately it came down to time and pacing. And when we interrupted Joseph Fiennes\u2019 character arc, coming into the faith and understanding that the Resurrection indeed happened and he would bear witness to it, we found that this personal story \u2014 this B-story of the lead actor \u2014 was interrupting that flow and that momentum. So after testing it and talking internally, we decided to drop it, and in doing so, the movie moved a lot quicker, and that was ultimately the experience we wanted.<\/p>\n There\u2019s sort of a shift in the story, in terms of that moment where Clavius barges in on the disciples when they are actually meeting with the risen Jesus, and it\u2019s sort of like the film does a bit of a pivot there. Up until then, it\u2019s very much a story told from the outside, but then for the last 40 minutes or so it becomes a story told from the inside, even though it\u2019s still seen from an outsider\u2019s point of view.<\/b><\/p>\n Paul: That is exactly correct. That\u2019s the intention. Let me ask you, are you Christian?<\/p>\n Oh yeah, absolutely.<\/b><\/p>\n Paul: The allegory of the story is this is a person\u2013 Clavius stands in for modern man, worn down, living in a very violent unpredictable world, he\u2019s kind of trapped in his career like many people in the world right now. So the whole idea behind the film, for somebody coming to this as a modern-day Christian, we all have tremendous problems now with the media, we\u2019re under siege, so this is a guy that\u2019s starting to look at this and look at Christ, as an allegory, as a story, and then when he finally encounters him, of course it changes him. And that is what the film is about, is the fact that, as he goes on the road with him, he starts to shed his clothes, he starts to become like him. When he\u2019s standing out there on the sand dune, he\u2019s basically Lawrence of Arabia, he\u2019s one of them.<\/p>\n And the fact that he doesn\u2019t fully commit is also realistic for modern Christians. You\u2019re not just going to jump head over heels into this, but when you start to realize that this could potentially be real, in modern life, you go through this process, so that\u2019s what happens. He then becomes, on the inside, he\u2019s still questioning, he\u2019s still poking holes in it, but he\u2019s in the presence of Christ now. And the moment on the rock is the moment we all want, where we sit there and have five minutes with Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n So the film does shift dramatically, and I think that\u2019s the best part of the film. And that shift was in the first draft of the script, where he encounters Christ and he can\u2019t fathom it. He laid this guy to rest, and now he\u2019s there! But that also stands in for us, when we\u2019re all told these stories, or this happened so long ago, but then something happens in your life, supernaturally or otherwise, you go wait a minute, maybe this is real.<\/p>\n What I thought was interesting is that it doesn\u2019t just change him, but it changes the story in a way. Up until that point, Clavius is just like everyone in the audience who has heard the story and is trying to process it, but after that point, he\u2019s got sort of an advantage that the rest of us don\u2019t have, do you know what I mean?<\/b><\/p>\n Paul: Mm-hmm. Exactly. That\u2019s the most inspirational part of the film, actually, because now he\u2019s tagging along with them. It all opens up.<\/p>\n But do you think it might make it harder for audiences to relate to that character, if he\u2019s actually seeing Jesus and the average audience member hasn\u2019t?<\/b><\/p>\n Paul: Well, it\u2019s a film. The whole point of the film is the experience that\u2019s not possible, right? And again, in terms of storytelling, I think one of the smartest things that we did \u2014 and this was Patrick\u2019s idea \u2014 was to hire Cliff Curtis as Christ, because he\u2019s so strong, but the main thing we wanted to come across was that he\u2019s also so loving and forgiving, and if you listen carefully when you watch the DVD, when Clavius walks in that room, in the upper room, Christ says to him, \u201cClavius, there\u2019s no enemies here.\u201d He knows who he is, so the idea \u2014 there\u2019s a lot of subtlety to the film, which I think comes out in multiple viewings \u2014 is that he knows who he is. There\u2019s a lot of subtlety to it, and the takeaway is supposed to be we\u2019re encountering Jesus Christ here for ten minutes, and we\u2019re seeing these famous scenes from the Bible played out, but the more important thing is we\u2019re getting the feeling of what Clavius\u2013 You see Clavius physically change. He\u2019s no longer this man who\u2019s tired of death, to some degree his burden is lifted. That\u2019s what the film is about. When he walks off into the desert, his burden to some degree is lifted. He\u2019s starting a new chapter in his life. That\u2019s what the film is about. At the beginning he\u2019s trapped, he\u2019s a soldier. At the end, he now has a day without death. He no longer has to kill people.<\/p>\n