After years of speculation, The Resurrection of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s follow-up to his 2004 indie blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, is finally on its way — and it just inked a deal with studio Lionsgate.
From the Inbox:
SANTA MONICA, California, May 15, 2025— Multiple Oscar®-winning director and producers Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey, and their Icon Productions banner, have chosen Lionsgate to be the studio partner on the highly anticipated motion picture The Resurrection of the Christ, the follow-up to their landmark 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which until last year was the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time domestically. The announcement was jointly made today by Adam Fogelson, chair, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, and Mel Gibson.
The Passion of the Christ debuted to an opening weekend of $83 million on its way to taking in $370 million in North American theaters and more than $610 million globally off a $30 million production budget.
The deal continues Gibson’s long association with Lionsgate, where he made his two most recent films: the Oscar® nominated Hacksaw Ridge and the thriller Flight Risk, starring Mark Wahlberg. The studio is also the distributor for the Icon library, including The Passion of the Christ.
“For many, many people across the globe, The Resurrection of the Christ is the most anticipated theatrical event in a generation. It is also an awe-inspiring and spectacularly epic theatrical film that is going to leave moviegoers worldwide breathless,” said Fogelson.
“Mel is one of the greatest directors of our time, and this project is both deeply personal to him and the perfect showcase for his talents as a filmmaker. My relationship with Mel and Bruce dates back 30 years, and I am thrilled to be partnering with them once again on this landmark event for audiences.”
“Lionsgate’s brave, innovative spirit and nimble, can-do attitude have inspired me for a long time, and I couldn’t think of a more perfect distributor for The Resurrection of the Christ,” added Gibson.
“I’ve enjoyed working with Adam and the team several times over recent years. I know the clever ingenuity, passion, and ambition the entire team commits to their projects and I’m confident they will bring everything they can to the release of this movie.”
Lionsgate as a Major Player in Faith-Based Entertainment
This deal also increases Lionsgate’s influence as a major mover in the faith-based entertainment space.
The studio is already home to the Erwin brothers’ Kingdom Story Company — releasing a string of films, most recently The Unbreakable Boy — and, in 2023, signed on as a licensing partner on The Chosen.
Last November, around the time of the successful release of Kingdom’s surprisingly Marian The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, directed by The Chosen creator Dallas Jenkins, Lionsgate and Kingdom renewed their first-look deal for another three years. That would extend the relationship up to a full decade.
This new phase in the partnership with Gibson and Icon for one of the most-anticipated sequels of the 21st Century shows that Lionsgate has faith in Jesus … or, at least, in Christianity’s ability to infuse successful storytelling.
The Return of Positive Christianity to Mainstream Entertainment
Since the earliest days of filmmaking, Bible-based tales and stories featuring characters of faith were a regular feature of major-studio productions. This began to tail off toward the end of the last century. And of the faith-based films still made in that period, an increasing number took a skeptical or even hostile attitude toward belief.
Over the first couple decades of the new century, that tide seems to have slowly turned, and the unexpected (for Hollywood) success of The Passion of the Christ had a lot to do with that.
We don’t know much about The Resurrection of the Christ, other than Jim Caviezel looks to be returning to his role of Jesus, with production set to begin in Italy this summer.
Gibson has also dropped some clues.
From Catholic News Agency:
In an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, Gibson said the film is “very ambitious” and the story follows “the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.”
“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. You need to go to hell. You need to go to Sheol,” he added.
“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. But I’ll take a crack at it because that’s what you’ve got to do, right, walk up to the plate, right?”
Buckle up, it’s going to get interesting.
Image: Icon Productions, Lionsgate, Canva
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