The title of the latest movie by Mel Gibson is "The Passion", and it tells the story of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus on the day of his crucifixion in Jerusalem. It's based upon the diaries of St. Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) as collected in the book, "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ". (link on the left)

Production started on November 4th in Matera and Craco (Basilicata, Southern Italy), then the set moved to CINECITTA' (Rome) for interiors.  Mel Gibson chose to shoot in November because of the particular color of the light in this month on the soft stones of the ancient part of Matera.  The landscape surrounding Matera looks very similar to the one surrounding Jerusalem. Moreover, the ancient part of Matera (Sassi), abandoned 50 years ago, still looks like a city of 2000 years ago. They finished to shoot in February, in Rome.

All the movie is shot in Latin and Aramaic, and probably we'll see it without the aid of subtitles. Mel gibson is the director, Jesus is played by Jim Caviezel. The Production is By ICON; owned byMel Gibson, but there is not yet a distributor.

Almost one thousand extras took part in the movie: Roman Soldiers, Palestinians and Disciples. Gibson wants to shoot everything exactly as it was 2000  years ago. The movie will probably be on the cinema from Easter 2004.

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Tan Books Editor

Some scenes of the movie.

Important: even if we are very careful about our sources, we remind you that we took this information by unofficial sources.

As we told, all the actors speak Aramaic or Latin, and there won't be subtitles.

The first scene shot (it doesn't mean surely it will be the first in the movie)  is the hanging of Judas. When Judas hangs, many children runs around him, symbol of the evil thoughts of Judas.

In the countryside, in a national natural park close to Matera, in a cottage, they built scenography for Jesus' childhood: father's shop and his small house. Indeed, even if the movie is about the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, during his crucifixion, he will remembers his childhood. In a scene, Madonna gives him some food, in an other one, he works as joiner together with his father. We find these scenes in the screenplay, but there is nothing similar in the Gospels.

Then, the first choral scene. Jesus falls down for two times, hold by the Madonna. There are extras and roman soldiers

When Jesus walks with the cross on the shoulders all the people of Jerusalem offend him, and Gibson suggested to the extras to offend him really, even to hurt him and his Mother.

In the crucifixion scene, Jesus is really full with blood, completely red. The cross is on the edge of Matera's canyon, and since for Jim Cavaziel, playing Jesus, was impossible to be on the cross for hours, they built a robot  looking exactly like Jim Cavaziel. The robot is moved by remote control by Mel Gibson.

To learn more about this movie, please see the other pages of our website: you find the links on the left in the top.

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