'The Passion of the Christ' 2 news: Writer confirms work on early stages of script, but will it be enough to resurrect Mel Gibson's career?

Sequel to "The Passion of the Christ" is confirmed and this time around, the follow-up to the biblical blockbuster will center on Jesus Christ's resurrection. No less than Randall Wallace, writer of the first installment, confirmed the news.

In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood reporter, Wallace reluctantly shared that he has started work on a script and said that it's become harder and harder to keep the project under wraps. He said that he and Mel Gibson, who starred in "Braveheart," another film which Wallace wrote the story for, decided on a sequel as they were working on "Hacksaw Ridge."

"The Passion of the Christ" is touted as the most successful independent film of all time, and according to Wallace, it was merely the beginning. As a religion major at Duke University, he said the resurrection was his specialization.

"I always wanted to tell this story [Christ's resurrection]," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "'The Passion' is the beginning and there's a lot more story to tell."

While Gibson's representative declined to comment on the news, the actor-director seemed to hint at it when he made a surprise appearance at Liberty University's graduation ceremony. He said he was interested in making a sequel, but he didn't elaborate on how involved he would be with the project.

The project is still in its early stages, so no studio or financier has been lined up for it. Nevertheless, Wallace said the demand in the Christian community had a lot to do with his and Gibson's enthusiasm about the sequel

"The evangelical community considers 'The Passion' the biggest movie ever out of Hollywood, and they kept telling us that they think a sequel will be even bigger," Wallace said.

The Business Standard noted that "The Passion of the Christ," which starred Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ, was the highest-grossing religious film, highest-grossing non-English-language film of all time, and the second highest-grossing R-rated film in the United States.

Apparently, the 2004 movie only had a $30 million production budget, but it earned a whopping $612 million worldwide while earning three nominations at the 77th Academy Awards.

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair hopes that the sequel to "The Passion of the Christ" could resurrect Gibson's career, should the project push through. They noted that the period when the original movie was being filmed was the last time the "Lethal Weapon's" star was untainted by personal and domestic troubles.

Since then, Gibson has had his share of highly publicized scandals that even prompted high-profile studio heads to call for an industry boycott of the actor. However, a project as big as "The Passion" sequel might just be the catalyst Gibson needs to rise from his slump.