Posted on 02/10/2005 7:59:17 PM PST by brigada
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1300755.htm
Mel Gibson will release a new, low-violence version of his 2004 mega-hit The Passion of the Christ next month, Daily Variety reports.
The star, dubbed Hollywood's most powerful figure since the huge success of the low-budget, graphically gory film, is trimming five to six minutes of violent scenes ahead of the film's March 11 reappearance on United States screens.
The original film raked in $474 million in its North American run that began on Ash Wednesday one year ago.
But Gibson noted that many people had avoided the film because of its grisly portrayal of Jesus Christ being tortured by Roman troops.
"There has been quite a demand by the religious community to bring [the film] back for Easter," Bruce Davey, Gibson's partner at Icon Productions, told Variety.
"And there has been a lot of discussion about the violence. Mel wanted to try and accommodate those people by making a version that is softer and gentler.
The film, The Passion Recut, will be beamed onto 500 to 750 screens by distributor Newmarket Films, Variety said, adding that the new versions would not be lumbered with an audience age restriction.
The new less violent version of the film goes easier on the brutal details of the last days of Christ.
"There are no new scenes, and the cuts are limited to the more violent aspects of the film, if that's the right term. The scourging scene in particular has been substantially adjusted," Mr Davey said.
The film caused huge controversy in the United States, with Jewish leaders accusing the devoutly-Catholic Gibson of anti-Semitism by portraying Jews as responsible for Christ's death, a charge he denied.
But instead of keeping audiences away, the controversy at the bloody religious epic helped draw people into theatres, despite a mimimum of traditional publicity.
"softer and gentler"?
http://www.geocities.com/mitchelldoesmissouri/passion.html
Mel "held back", as it was.
Will he change the ending?
Yes, but it will be better on the lids and old ladies.:-)
Lids=kids! LOL
Yeah, Abe Foxman, his family, a couple dozen Eskimoes, and an unknown Amazonian tribe in Brazil "avoided" it.
The rest of humanity saw it. Twice.
That may be so but that was not the point of Christ's death.
I do not believe in "adjusting" the truth in order to make it more "palatable".
[and no, I'm not picking at you at all...it's Mel that should leave it -be-]
http://www.weareone.faithweb.com/passion.html
[and I took it to mean "lids" as in "eye lids"]...;))
Make that thrice, for some....:))
I just heard about this and find it very interesting.
What Mel should do is do it IN ENGLISH!!!
That way, after it becomes the top grossing film two years in a row, the Academy can pretty much ignore him again.
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