'Cut' Passion to be released

2005-02-11 10:41

Hollywood mogul Mel Gibson will release a new, low-violence version of his 2004 surprise mega-hit The Passion of Christ next month, Daily Variety reported on Thursday.

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 11 March reappearance on US screens.

The original film raked in $370.2m - about R2 269m- 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," he said.

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."

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 minimum of traditional publicity.

- AFP