The Resurrection of the Christ Wraps Production with First Look
Lionsgate, along with multiple Oscar-winning director and producers Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey and their Icon Productions banner, has completed principal photography on the motion picture The Resurrection of the Christ, the follow-up to their 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, one of the highest-grossing R-rated films of all time.
The announcement was made by Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, and Gibson. The filming concluded ahead of schedule after 134 days of shooting in Rome, Bari, Ginosa, Craco, Brindisi (Torre Guaceto), and Matera.
The studio also announced that the epic film, starring Jaakko Ohtonen, Mariela Garriga, Pier Luigi Pasino, Kasia Smutniak, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Rupert Everett, will be released in two parts, with Part One released on May 6, 2027 (Ascension Day 2027), and Part Two coming on May 25, 2028 (Ascension Day & Memorial Day Weekend 2028).
Lionsgate will release the film in North America and the UK, as well as in Latin America through IDC, Lionsgate’s joint venture in that region, and will team up on the film’s release with major international distribution partners, including Leonine (Germany), Metropolitan Film (France), Diamond (Spain), Dutch Filmworks (Benelux), Mis. Label (Scandinavia), Sun Africa (South Africa), Monolith (Poland), Vertical Entertainment (Eastern Europe), Blitz Film (Ex-Yugo), Ascot Elite (Switzerland), Pris Audiovisuais (Portugal), and Acme (Baltics). Icon will release in Australia/New Zealand.
“Mel is a true visionary with an artist’s eye for scale and a storyteller’s instinct for emotional truth,” said Fogelson. “Every image we’ve seen from set feels like a masterwork painting brought to life.
“There are very few directors who can operate at this level of epic spectacle while at the same time delivering such depth and conviction. Mel has crafted a film of extraordinary ambition that audiences worldwide have been waiting to experience for over 20 years.”
“I’m deeply grateful to my incredibly talented cast and crew for pouring their hearts into this production. Together, we created something powerful,” said Gibson. “This film represents a major part of my life’s work, and it has demanded everything of me as a filmmaker and as an artist.
“This is far more than a film to me. It’s a mission I’ve carried for over twenty years to tell what I believe is the most important story in human history. Reuniting with many of my original collaborators from The Passion of the Christ — true masters of their craft — allowed us to bring this story to the screen exactly as I envisioned it, with the tremendous support of my longtime partners, Adam and the team at Lionsgate.”
The Passion of the Christ debuted with an opening weekend of $83 million, going on to take in $370 million in North American theaters and more than $610 million globally, off a $30 million production budget.
The Resurrection of the Christ continues Gibson’s long association with Lionsgate, where he made his two most recent films: the multiple Oscar-nominated Hacksaw Ridge and the thriller Flight Risk, starring Mark Wahlberg. The studio is also the distributor for the Icon library, including The Passion of the Christ.
