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The screenwriter appeared on the July 15 episode of Raymond Arroyo’s ‘Arroyo Grande’ podcast
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The Resurrection of the Christ writer Randall Wallace revealed in the July 15 episode of Raymond Arroyo’s Arroyo Grande podcast that Mel Gibson warned him that Satan would come after him for writing the sequel to The Passion of the Christ
“ ‘You know, Satan’s going to come after you,’ ” Wallace recalled of Gibson’s words
The sequel is set for release in two parts in 2027 and 2028
Screenwriter Randall Wallace is revealing the warning that Mel Gibson gave him ahead of writing The Passion of the Christ’s two-part sequel.
Alongside Mel’s brother Donal Gibson, Wallace, 76, teamed up with the two-time Oscar winner to write the upcoming The Resurrection of the Christ, which picks up where the 2004 blockbuster biblical drama left off.
Appearing on Raymond Arroyo’s podcast Arroyo Grande in an episode released Wednesday, July 15, Wallace revealed that Mel warned him that Satan would come after him when he suggested they make the movie.
“Having studied the Resurrection and being so consumed by it, I thought about it many times,” Wallace said. “I didn’t have anything to do with The Passion of the Christ.”
Wallace, who previously worked with Mel in 1995’s Braveheart, 2002’s We Were Soldiers and 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge, continued, “When we were promoting Hacksaw Ridge, we were sitting there talking about our lives.”
“I said, ‘Look, you know, the story that you really need to tell is the Resurrection,’ ” he said.
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“There was this long pause, and he said something profoundly beautiful,” the filmmaker recalled. “He said, ‘If we do this, it can’t be for the money, and it can’t be to get back at people that have hated us or wronged us or been unhappy with us.’ And I said, ‘Amen to that.’ ”
“Then he said, ‘You know, Satan’s going to come after you,’ ” Wallace continued.
He then lightheartedly recalled, “I said, ‘Well, you know, Satan doesn’t really care about Baptists.’ It’s really good when Satan can get a Catholic. We’re a dime a dozen.”
“Of course, I was being facetious, but I was also thinking…” Wallace said, to which Arroyo added, “What if he’s right?”
“Well, yeah,” Wallace agreed. “We had a beautiful conversation about grace.”
The moment then became the beginning of their The Resurrection of the Christ collaboration.
“I knew he had written ‘The Passion,’ was very much deeply involved in the writing of it,” Wallace said. “I said, ‘Look, let’s partner up. I’ll write a draft, give it to you, then we’ll start tearing it up, go through it. You do your thing, I’ll do mine. We’ll work together, we’ll work apart.’ So we started that way.”
In May, Lionsgate shared a first look at The Resurrection of the Christ and announced that filming — which took place across Rome, Bari, Ginosa, Craco, Brindisi (Torre Guaceto) and Matera in Italy for 134 days — had been completed.
“This is far more than a film to me,” Mel said in a press release. “It’s a mission I’ve carried for over 20 years to tell what I believe is the most important story in human history.”
Cast members of the new film include Jaakko Ohtonen, Mariela Garriga, Pier Luigi Pasino, Kasia Smutniak, Riccardo Scamarcio and Rupert Everett.
While Part One was originally set to hit theatres in March 2026, the release date is now May 6, 2027, with Part Two coming on May 25, 2028, per Variety.
Mel’s Passion of the Christ became the fifth-highest-grossing movie of 2004 worldwide.
Lionsgate said in its release that the film had an opening weekend of $83 million and went on to gross $370 million in North American theaters and more than $610 million globally.
The movie, which starred Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ and Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene, was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Original Score and Best Makeup at the 77th Academy Awards in 2005.
Read the original article on People
