Mel Gibson will start work on The Resurrection of the Christ in August.

The actor-director will be heading over to Italy in the summer to begin production on his long-awaited sequel to 2004's Biblical epic The Passion of the Christ, Rome's Cinecittà Studios CEO Manuela Cacciamani had let slip.

Speaking to Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, she said: "I can confirm that the next film directed by Mel Gibson, produced by Icon Productions, The Resurrection of the Christ, will be shot entirely in Cinecittà starting in August and requires many theatres and stage construction."

Earlier this year, the Braveheart actor, 68, described The Resurrection of the Christ as an "acid trip" and admitted he had "never read anything like" the script he had been working on with Randall Wallace.

He told podcaster Joe Rogan: "My brother and I and Randall all sort of congregated on this. So there're some good heads put together, but there's some crazy stuff.

"And I think in order to really tell the story properly, you have to really start with the fall of the angels, which means you're in another place, you're in another realm. You need to go to hell."

The sequel — which will see Jim Caviezel reprise his role as Jesus Christ — has been in development since 2016 and Mel previously explained it would not have "a linear narrative".

He added in a 2022 interview with the National Catholic Register: "You have to juxtapose the central event that I'm trying to tell with everything else around it in the future, in the past, and in other realms, and that's kind of getting a little sci-fi out there."

Just six months ago, he admitted he wasn't sure if he'd direct his biblical tale or Lethal Weapon 5 first.

When ComicBook.com asked which film he'd tackle first, he said: "I don't know, and that's the funny thing.

"I mean, there're various obstacles to getting any film up on its feet, and not just budgetary, but there's like, there's 1,000,001 reasons why something goes and why it doesn't.

"So it's really kind of a c***shoot at this point what goes first and which came first, whether it's the chicken or the egg."

In 2021, Gibson revealed he would be directing a sequel to 1998's Lethal Weapon 4 — in which he starred alongside Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo and Chris Rock — after the series' original filmmaker Richard Donner passed away that year, though news about the upcoming film has been slow since.

In June, the actor insisted he was still attached to the project, and teased the flick would retain its comedic tone while also tackling "a couple of hard issues".

During an appearance on the Inspire Me Podcast, he said: "Richard Donner, who did the other four, sadly passed away, and he was a good friend. He kind of tasked me with carrying the flag home on this one so it'll be an honour for me to do that.

"He had gone a fair way with the screenplay, so we've used what was there and we kept poking at it. I'm pretty happy with it."

Source: Bang