Mel Gibson is working with Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace on a sequel to The Passion of the Christ that will focus on the resurrection of Jesus.
Word comes from Wallace himself to THR, telling them that he and Gibson got serious about the project during the making of Hacksaw Ridge, which opens on November 4 and is directed by Gibson and co-written by Wallace.
"I always wanted to tell this story," Wallace said, "The Passion is the beginning and there's a lot more story to tell."
Wallace says the Christian community's desire for a sequel influenced him and Gibson to go forward with the project.
"The evangelical community considers The Passion the biggest movie ever out of Hollywood, and they kept telling us that they think a sequel will be even bigger," Wallace said.
No studio is attached to the project.
The Passion of the Christ was entirely funded by Mel Gibson and his company Icon Productions. The film mostly covers the final 12 hours of Jesus' life. Mel Gibson directed from his and Benedict Fitzgerald's screenplay. It grossed over $600 million worldwide and is the highest-grossing independent movie, the highest-grossing religious movie, the highest-grossing non-English movie, the highest-grossing R-rated movie domestically and the third highest-grossing R-rated movie of all-time worldwide behind Deadpool and The Matrix Reloaded. The film received three Oscar nominations for cinematography, score and makeup.