Mel Gibson hopes to enhance church teaching with film

Mel Gibson wants The Resurrection of the Christ to “enhance” the teachings of the church.

The Australian actor-turned-director has been busy working on the sequel to his 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, and he has suggested he has looked beyond the traditional stories from the Bible to shine a light on different elements of Jesus Christ’s life and work.

“If you look at the synoptic Gospels – and they are synoptic, which means they don’t tell you everything,” he told The Christian Post.

“And even John says, ‘Y’know, hey, there were many other things [Jesus] said and did which, if they were to be written down, couldn’t fill all the libraries of all the world,’ right? So there’s a lot of stuff that wasn’t written.

“One can look at these things and go, ‘I wonder what was around that?’ and try and analyse those things and make suppositions about what might have been.

“Not to go against anything in orthodox teaching but to enhance, I think, what’s there for everyone to see and hopefully they’ll be surprised by some of those revelations.”

The synoptic Gospels are Matthew, Mark and Luke, and refer to the three Gospels that present the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in a similar fashion.

The 70-year-old star also teased the story “gets around” beyond Earth.

“I mean, you’ll be in the firmament before the creation. You’ll be in the Hell of the just, and then you’ll be in the Hell of the damned. And so it jumps around a little bit. It doesn’t just stay on the planet here. It gets around,” he said.

Gibson previously declared the two-part Resurrection of the Christ to be a major part of his “life’s work”.

In a statement to mark the end of filming in May, Gibson – who is directing the films – explained: “I’m deeply grateful to my incredibly talented cast and crew for pouring their hearts into this production.

“Together, we created something powerful. This film represents a major part of my life’s work, and it has demanded everything of me as a filmmaker and as an artist,” he said.

“This is far more than a film to me. It’s a mission I’ve carried for over twenty years to tell what I believe is the most important story in human history.

“Reuniting with many of my original collaborators from The Passion of the Christ – true masters of their craft – allowed us to bring this story to the screen exactly as I envisioned it.”

Part one will debut on May 6, 2027, with the second due on May 25, 2028. Both release dates coincide with Ascension Day, when Christians celebrate the ascension of Jesus into Heaven.