Newsbites: The Chosen! The Resurrection of the Christ! The Way of the Wind!
The Chosen: Last Supper is coming to Prime Video on different dates in different countries; the sequel to The Passion of the Christ might start shooting this summer; and more.
Life’s been busy, so I haven’t kept my news alerts as up-to-date as I’d like, but here’s a quick round-up regarding three very different Jesus movies.
The Chosen: Last Supper announces Prime Video release dates
Many people discovered The Chosen when series creator Dallas Jenkins started hosting livestreams of Season 1 during the Covid lockdowns in 2020. (At that time, the show’s first few episodes had already been out for almost a year.) The next three seasons made their online debuts through similar global livestreams.
But it looks like Season 5—released in theatres as The Chosen: Last Supper—will be handled somewhat differently. It’s the first season to come out after The Chosen Inc. signed an exclusive streaming deal with Prime Video, and it will be rolling out in different territories on different dates.
The American Prime release will mirror the season’s theatrical release, with episodes being released in two- or three-episode batches on a weekly basis:
Episodes 1-2 — theatrical: March 27 — US Prime Video: June 15
Episodes 3-5 — theatrical: April 3 — US Prime Video: June 22
Episodes 6-8 — theatrical: April 10 — US Prime Video: June 29
Canada, which got the season in theatres at the same time as the US, will apparently have to wait for the Prime Video release until July, which is also when the season will start streaming in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. There is no word yet on whether the episodes will be released all-at-once or at weekly intervals within those territories.
Eventually the season will be released for free around the world on The Chosen’s app. There is no firm date for that yet, but in a livestream last week, Jenkins said the season will “probably” appear on the app “sometime in September”.
There is also no word yet on whether there will be any episode-watching livestreams to accompany that release, but if there are, it could be a very different experience from past livestreams, as most of the people participating would have had a chance to watch the season already.
In the meantime, it was also announced that The Chosen: Last Supper parts 2 (episodes 3-5) and 3 (episodes 6-8) will be coming to theatres in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand later this month. Previously those territories had only gotten part 1.
The Chosen: Last Supper has grossed a combined $44.4 million so far in North America (including the US and Canada). A press release announcing the Prime Video dates said the season has grossed “nearly $60 million and counting” worldwide.
You can watch a trailer for the Prime Video release above.
Previous videos (and/or comments on videos) for The Chosen: Last Supper:
The Last Supper sneak peek (commentary only, no video; November 9, 2024)
The teaser (November 28, 2024)
The ‘Confrontation over Jesus’ and ‘Jesus Wants Judas’ Heart’ clips (December 11, 2024)
The ‘An Unexpected Wedding Guest’ clip (December 31, 2024)
The livestream announcing the show’s release schedule (February 17, 2025)
The trailer (February 21, 2025)
The world-premiere livestream, with Kafni clip (March 26, 2025)
Mel Gibson shooting The Passion 2 in August?
This news is a bit old now, but hey. In late March, Cinecittà Studios CEO Manuela Cacciamani revealed during an interview with an Italian newspaper that Mel Gibson is going to start shooting The Resurrection of the Christ, his long-gestating sequel to The Passion of the Christ, in August. Deadline has the (translated) quote.
Gibson, to my knowledge, has not confirmed this news, but he did reveal on the Joe Rogan podcast back in January that he hoped to shoot the film “next year”, and he was reportedly scouting locations for the film in Malta and Italy last September.
Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in the original film and is set to play him again in the new one, has certainly been talking about the new film lately—see the Raymond Arroyo interview below, which took place just a couple weeks ago—but he’s been talking about the film for years, and nothing that he says here sounds all that different to me from what he’s said before. Unless I missed something, he doesn’t exactly confirm that the film is really, really happening this year. We’ll see, though.
P.S.: It comes up only briefly in the video, but the interview with Arroyo also marks the first time I’ve heard Caviezel talk about how he’ll be playing a very different Bible character, i.e. King Herod, in Zero A.D., which comes out in December.
Waiting for Terrence Malick’s The Way of the Wind…
The last time I wrote about Terrence Malick’s The Way of the Wind—over a year ago, now!—it was rumoured that Malick might finish editing the film in time for this year’s Cannes film festival. But the festival starts next week, and the movie, a Jesus film that Malick shot way back in 2019, is still nowhere to be seen.
Jordan Ruimy, over at the World of Reel blog, has been following the news (or lack of news) about this film pretty closely, and he posted a string of seemingly conflicting reports about the film’s status during the weeks leading up to the Cannes line-up announcement last month. Here’s a quick list of those reports (some of these quotes are straight from Ruimy, others are from stories that Ruimy linked to):
February 24 — Despite rumours last year that the film might premiere at Cannes 2025, Ruimy says, “I’m hearing that the film is ‘nowhere near finished,’ and this comes from someone who is very privy in knowing how the film’s post production process is going.”
March 8 — Ruimy adds, “another source tells me it’s now officially being shopped around to U.S. distributors. An edited cut of the film is being shown to buyers.”
March 14 — Variety says the film “is still in post but recently screened privately in L.A.”
March 16 — Ruimy, building on Variety’s report, says, “I now have some additional info. The cut shown was without SFX shots, but in attendance were programmers for Cannes, Venice, and Toronto.”
March 20 — Filmmaker Andrew DeYoung tells Interview he invited Malick to a screening of his own film and Malick replied that he’s too busy “editing right now” to accept the invitation.
April 2 — The Film Stage says “a source with strong connections to the project told me Malick’s had actors from previous projects take a crash course in film-editing and try their hand at cutting together scenes.”
April 10 — Cannes announces its line-up, and The Way of the Wind is not on the list. Ruimy’s original source tells him, “Mr. Malick says his picture is nowhere near being able to show — anywhere.”
Malick, of course, is notorious for taking a long time to edit his films—Song to Song didn’t come out until four and a half years after he filmed it—so it’s not all that strange that he’s still working on this film, especially if he does regard it as “just the most important film” (as one of his colleagues recently said).
But the man is 81 now. Here’s hoping he finishes it in his lifetime.
Just for fun: a poll
The Chosen has been putting out new episodes since 2019, and still has two seasons to go. The Way of the Wind was filmed in 2019, and is still in the editing room. And Mel Gibson has been talking openly about making a sequel to The Passion of the Christ since 2016. Which of these films or shows will be finished first?
FWIW, a “pre-sale” of The Chosen Season 5 DVD is now in The Chosen app/shop. They plainly state they can’t provide a release date yet, so wondering if it will be before/ after/ concurrent with the Prime release date.