Hollywood Economics
Speaking as a longtime writer and produced screenwriter, let me tell you a little secret: Despite the supposed threats against Gibson emanating from certain Hollywood quarters, if this flick does anything like the now-predicted gross (which would stick 50-75 million dollars in Gibson’s personal pockets), not only will Mel Gibson have no trouble finding work, he’ll have to fend it off with a club.
And ten bloody religious Christian epics will be greenlighted immediately by everybody from Disney to Sony, with Spielberg being the biggest name to dive into the “First In Line To Be Second” pool.
Sounds about right. I will predict that there won’t be a sequel, though.
Oooooo….
Nobody expects the
Spanish Inquisition
Well, maybe its not the best choice to follow up the Passion.
A sequel? No. But a prequel? Perhaps. The movie does nothing to show context for the Passion itself. Honestly, it would be no surprise to see a movie about the ministry of Jesus, so as to show the reasoning behind the Crucifixion.
I could come up with all kinds of satirical titles for a Passion sequel, but I don’t feel like going to hell.
However, nearly all of the ones I could come up with would have this time-honored tagline: “He’s back, and He’s pissed!”
According to today’s (Saturday) boxofficemojo.com official tally, Passion will become the #1 movie of 2004 by SUNDAY (in 5 days!!), beating Jennifer Anniston’s “Along Came Polly” which made $85 million. As of the end of Friday, Passion was at $64.5 million gross in 3 days. Speaking of sleeper hits of the decade! It’s going to beat the tally of every movie Mel Gibson has ever made! Mel won’t ever have to work again, and Hollywood will come begging him to do projects.
“Whore of Babylon” could be Madonna’s next project.
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