Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. DeMille, 1949), Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1951), The ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956), Ben Hur (William Wyler, 1959), King of Kings (Nicholas Ray, 1961)… Every year The same old classics return for Easter to the evening television schedulealready established as a tradition with as much roots as the eating of torrijas.
All of them, with their particularities, come from a lost Hollywood, that of the great studios of the 50s and 60s, and belong to that genre known as peplummade up of blockbusters, more or less dramatic, more or less adventure, that mixed historical, religious and fantastic elements.
He died peplum -despite Ridley Scott’s attempts to resurrect him in Gladiator (2000) or Exodus: gods and kings (2014)-, The Bible has continued to be a source of inspiration for the big screen for decadessometimes detaching itself from the sacred letter, whether from a humorous perspective or in Brian’s life (Terry Jones, 1979), with a musical in line with the fight for civil rights as Jesus Christ Superstar (Norman Jewinson, 1973), from a reflective and apocryphal point of view as in The last temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 1988) or from the ultraviolent exploitation of Passion of Christ (Mel Gibson, 2004).
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Besides, Jesus Christ continues to be a figure that generates interest among directors todayas demonstrated by prestigious films such as Last days in the desert (Rodrigo García, 2015), with Ewan McGregor as the protagonist, or Maria Magdalena (Garth Davies, 2018), with Joaquin Phoenix as the son of god.
AND, on the small screen, the series triumphs The Chosen), a drama with touches of humor that stands out for its historical and biblical accuracy and its playful spirit to narrate the life of Jesus. Proof of its success is that its fourth season will premiere in 2,263 theaters in the United States, grossing more than 7 million dollars from Friday to Sunday, and in 120 Spanish theaters. In our country, it is broadcast on the Movistar Plus+ and acontra+ streaming platforms.
An image from ‘The Chosen’
But maybe Never before have such succulent and attractive projects about the Redeemer been on the horizon like those prepared by three very renowned filmmakers: Terrence Malick, Mel Gibson and Martin Scorsese.
Of this triumvirate, Malick is the one who seems to be closest to showing his film, although we still do not know the details of the premiere (perhaps it will be Cannes where it will see the light). Initially titled as The Last Planetrenamed as The Way of the Wind, The film seems to be the culmination of the mystical and spiritual path that the director opened with The Tree of Life (2011) and that has continued in films like To the Wonder (2012), Knight of Cups (2015), Song to Song (2017) or Hidden Life (2019).
According to specialized media, The film was shot in 2019, but the director has taken his time in the editing room to polish the visual finish and ethereal narrative of what is supposed to be a lyrical and profound reflection on Christ and his message. Not in vain, Malick is devout to the Christian faith. It also seems that the film will include a little-known episode such as Christ’s descent into hell.
The Way of the Wind features Géza Röhrig -star of Saul’s son (Lázsló Nemes, 2015) – in the skin of Jesus and in the cast, names such as Matthias Schoenaerts, Ben Kingsley, Joseph Fiennes or Mark Rylance, who has confirmed that he plays four different versions of Satan. Although with Malick you never know: he has already killed several stars in the final cut of his films.
Mel Gibson’s acid trip
We all know the divination power of The Simpsonbut was Family Guy who anticipated the production of the second part of Passion of Christimagining her as a violent buddy movie action and revenge in which the Messiah is accompanied by Chris Tucker.
It does not seem that the shots are going to go that way, based on the words of director Mel Gibson in conversation with the YouTube channel Outstandig Screenplays last July. “It cannot be done lightly and quickly,” explained the protagonist of Lethal Weapon, which has taken 20 years to put together this sequel. “You have to really consider what it is you need to show to be moving. It cannot be linear. You have to have a lot of things to juxtapose with each other, even from different time periodsto illustrate what something means more completely.”
In any case, not even Gibson himself seems to be clear about the film’s narrative. “I have two scripts, and one of them is very structured, pretty much what you would expect. The other one is like an acid trip because you are going to enter other realms. I mean, you’re in hell, and you’re watching angels fall.”
According to the IMDB portal, the film is named The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection – Chapter I -which invites us to think that there will be a Chapter II– and is in production, although the start of filming should be imminent. Jim Cavizel will once again take on the role of the Savior, while Maia Morgenstern repeats as María and Francesco de Vito, as Pedro.
Martin Scorsese and the life of Jesus
After premiering at the Cannes Festival The Moon Killers (2023), Martin Scorsese (New York, 1942) made a trip through Italy with a stop at the Vatican, where he met with Pope Francis, gave a conference on the aesthetics of the Catholic imagination and announced that he was going to shoot a new movie about Jesus Christa character whom he already addressed in The last temptation of Christ.
“I have responded to the Pope’s request to artists in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing a script for a film about Jesus Christ,” Scorsese announced, according to what was published in different local media. “And I’m about to start working on it.”
The movie is based on the book Life of Jesusby the Japanese writer Shūsaku Endō, author of Silence, a novel about two Jesuits in feudal Japan that Scorsese already adapted to film in 2016. In an interview in Los Angeles Timesthe filmmaker stated that The film will be set mainly in the present day and will have a duration of approximately 80 minutesmuch less than some of his recent films such as the Irish either The Moon Killersboth above 200 minutes.
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“I’m trying to find a new way to make it more accessible and remove the negative charge of what has been associated with organized religion,” the director explained. “At the moment, everyone is up in arms with the word religion, because it has failed in many ways. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the initial impulse was wrong.”
Willem Dafoe in ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’
According to Los Angeles TimesScorsese has already finished writing the film’s script with critic and filmmaker Kent Jones, who made his feature debut with the indie drama Diane (2018). Filming should begin at the end of the year.
Additionally, it was recently announced that Scorsese will present, narrate and produce The Saints (The Saints), an eight-episode documentary series based on the lives of Christian saints that will air on Fox Nation.
Each hour-long episode will delve into “the remarkable stories of eight men and women who risked everything to embody humanity’s most noble and complex trait: faith.”
Among them are Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, Mary Magdalene, Moses the Black, Saint Sebastian and Maximilian Kolbe. The docudrama will premiere in two parts: the first four episodes will be released next Sunday, November 16, and the last in May 2025.
