Mel Gibson’s sequel to The Passion of the Christ — The Resurrection of the Christ — is set to begin production in Italy this August, according to Manuela Cacciamani, CEO of Rome’s Cinecittà Studios. 

“I can confirm that the next film directed by Mel Gibson, produced by Icon Productions, The Resurrection of Christ, will be shot entirely in Cinecittà starting in August and requires many theaters and stage constructions,” she said in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.

In an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, Gibson said the film is “very ambitious” and the story follows “the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.”

“I think in order to really tell the story properly, you have to really start with the fall of the angels, which means you’re in another place; you’re in another realm. You need to go to hell. You need to go to Sheol,” he added. 

“It’s about finding the way in that’s not cheesy or too obvious. I think I have ideas about how to do that and how to evoke things and emotions in people from the way you depict it and the way you shoot it. So I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy, and it’s going to require a lot of planning, and I’m not wholly sure I can pull it off; to tell you the truth, it’s super ambitious. But I’ll take a crack at it because that’s what you’ve got to do, right? Walk up to the plate, right?” 

Gibson shared that he plans to recast Jim Caviezel as Jesus and will have to use “a few techniques,” such as CGI de-aging, on Caviezel due to the fact that more than 20 years have passed since the first movie was released. 

The Passion of the Christ was released in 2004; and, despite controversies surrounding the film, it garnered a profit of $370 million domestically, with many crediting it as the movie that opened the door to faith-based media in Hollywood.