Will Trump's tariffs delay The Passion of the Christ sequel?
There have been rumours about a sequel to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ more or less since the film was first released in 2004. Then in 2016 The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Gibson was working on the script with Randall Wallace. There was still not much news about this in 2020 when I last wrote about the project. But stories have continued to emerge and the occasional quote has gained a bit of traction, until in March Deadline reported that the CEO Cinecittà in Rome had confirmed that filming was due to start in August 2026. (This was following on from a Joe Rogan podcast where Gibson had said he filming was due to start "next year"). [HT Peter Chattaway]
But now (once again) there's a potential fly in the ointment. Donald Trump has announced he is going to "...begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country" (sic.) not made in the United States.
The movie industry has generally come out against the idea both in the US and around the world. The doubling of the price to make a film will leave many existing and planned project as unviable. So even if all things were equal, this would be bad news for Mel Gibson. If he is making his film in Italy he can either face said tariff, or suffer the higher costs of moving production back to the US.
But things are not equal because Gibson is one of three 80s movie stars who Trump has appointed as his "Special Ambassadors" to Hollywood (the others being Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight). In the previous world of politics this would put Gibson in a bind: Not only would he have to lead by example and comply with this policy, but he's also have to try and sell it to others at the top of his profession. But then if values like this ever existed, they seem to have gone now. Perhaps Gibson will be allowed to skirt the rules, or be considered an exception. Or perhaps – having seen the success of The Chosen he will try and crowd-fund the film instead. Time will tell, I guess.
Labels: Passion of the Christ, The Resurrection
posted at 6:37 pm © Matt Page 2005-2023
2 Comments:
At 4:41 pm, May 13, 2025,
Anonymous said…
As far as I know Mel Gibson has not done anything as Trump's special Hollywood ambassador, an appointment that he was openly surprised to hear about. Stallone spoke at Mar-Lago before his own appointment, but otherwise isn't known to have done anything in service of his new role. If they are actually Trump's Hollywood ambassadors, one would expect them to have been co-participants with Jon Voight in the planning and negotiations around Hollywood revitalization, but Voight's been working with Scott Karol and Steven Paul, not Gibson or Stallone.
My guess is that Gibson and Stallone are not Trump's "special ambassadors" in any real sense, that Mel doesn't feel any responsibility to comply with Trump's policy, and that Trump would make an exception not just for Mel but for all Christian projects along with all projects of people like Mel and Stallone who he likes anyway. Furthermore, Voight has said that he suggested only "limited tariffs" to Trump, and according to White House spokesman Kush Desai "no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made" and "the Administration is exploring all options." Long story short, Gibson's film will be fine.
At 10:49 am, May 17, 2025,
Matt Page said…
Thanks for your comment Anon. It's one of those that is probably better than the original post. And I suspect you are right that Gibson's film will somehow 'merit' an exception.
Matt
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