Mel Gibson Says ‘Resurrection of the Christ’ Not in Aramaic Because the Story Is Too “Complex” for Subtitles

Mel Gibson has finally shot “The Resurrection of the Christ,” his long-awaited follow-up to 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ,” and it sounds like he’s going much bigger this time around. The two-part film was shot simultaneously in Rome and is now deep into post-production.

But there’s one major change from ‘The Passion’: Gibson isn’t shooting the new films in Aramaic and Latin. They’re in English. Gibson is exaplaining the decision, during a Fan Expo Boston panel, to Collider, saying the material became too complicated to ask audiences to process through subtitles.

They’re both in English because the subject matter and just the theological download you have to go through is so complex that I don’t think people would like to have to read it in subtitles in a foreign language. You want to be able to digest it straight away.

That’s a significant departure from “The Passion of the Christ,” where the use of Aramaic and Latin was central to the experience. Audiences were unbothered by the experience as, at the time, it was the most profitable R-rated movie in history, grossing $612M worldwide, which today would amount to $1.1 billion.

Gibson clearly doesn’t think the same approach works in ‘Resurrection.’ I’m not sure why.

So I tailored the material to fit the audience, and I think having it in the vernacular would be better for it.

It sounds like there’s maybe a lot more material to digest this time? Gibson says the story couldn’t simply be told as a straightforward sequel. There’s too much going on, and the Resurrection itself has to be understood alongside other historical events.

It’s a very difficult thing to understand. So you can’t just tell the linear story that way.

Gibson has spent roughly 23 years thinking about ‘Resurrection,’ with the screenplay taking almost a decade to develop alongside Randall Wallace (“Braveheart”) and his brother. The screenplay eventually became so big that it had to be split into two films. Gibson says the break was always there, rather than something imposed on the movie later.

It had it in the script, but it had a natural breaking point. There’s Part One and Part Two, and they’re distinct. I think they stand alone as individual pieces, but they do complete one another.

Gibson, having shot both movies, is now working on the edit and visual effects. He’s also teasing something that apparently isn’t going to resemble what audiences are expecting.

I don’t think it’s anything anyone would expect.

Each part is reportedly budgeted at around $125M, putting the combined production budget at around $250M, making it by far Mel Gibson’s most expensive directorial project. Jim Caviezel and Monica Bellucci will not return, with Jaakko Ohtonen playing Jesus and Mariela Garriga as Mary Magdalene. Part One is set for May 6, 2027, followed by Part Two on May 25, 2028.