The controversial Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, is set to open at more than 50 Irish cinemas on March 12th, its Irish distributors, Eclipse Pictures, announced yesterday.
The film depicts the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, beginning in the Garden of Olives after the Last Supper and concluding with a reputedly graphically violent depiction of his crucifixion.
The Irish film censor, Mr John Kelleher, has yet to view the film for certification purposes. However, he told The Irish Times last night that he expected to see it "very soon".
Gibson, who won the Oscars for best director and best film in 1995 with his Irish-made epic Braveheart, produced and directed The Passion of the Christ and collaborated on its screenplay with Benjamin Fitzgerald, but he does not appear in the film. Playing the role of Jesus is Jim Caviezel, the US actor whose films include The Thin Red Line, Ride With the Devil, and the most recent screen version of The Count of Monte Cristo, which was shot primarily in Ireland. The Italian actress, Monica Bellucci, who recently starred in the provocative French drama Irreversible, is cast as Mary Magdalene.
The film was made in Latin and Aramaic, and it will carry English susbtitles on its release here. In the US it opens on 2,000 screens on Ash Wednesday, February 25th - the widest release in US cinema history for a subtitled film. Whereas subtitled films are generally given their most extensive US release in New York and Los Angeles, the Gibson film is expected to find its largest audience in the Bible Belt, where advance demand for tickets is already said to be high.
The filmmakers reportedly conducted a marketing campaign aimed at evangelical Christians, Catholics and political conservatives. Gibson's production company organised many advance screenings for religious interest groups, primarily in the US, but also one in Dublin last month, and a screening at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II.