Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Nov. 24 WorldNetDaily article carries the headline "'Passion of the Christ' 'sequel' looking for you." In it, Drew Zahn claims that the planned film is "the unofficially dubbed 'sequel' to [Mel] Gibson’s 'The Passion of the Christ.'"
The scare quotes around the word "sequel" hints at what Zahn refuses to directly spell out: The planned film is no "sequel" at all. He provides no evidence that Gibson or anyone else involved with "The Passion of the Christ" has anything whatsoever to do with this film.
The only people dubbing it a "sequel," in fact, are Zahn and those behind the project, led by David Wood,
In fact, Zahn's article is nothing more than a plea for donors to fund the planned film and engage in a weird sort of crowdsourcing that Zahn spins as a "revolutionary approach:
“Normally when you make a movie,” ["Hollywood veteran" David] Wood told WND, “you raise money from your investors, get a script, hire everybody, shoot your movie and then you market it for five to six months before it’s released.”
But the team behind “The Resurrection” is flipping that process on its head, starting with the marketing before a single actor or cameraman or even script is on board.
“God directed us to begin marketing the film now, doing interviews, getting people excited, so that He could start drawing people to the project,” Wood said. “The whole idea was to invite the church around the world to come help us, come pray, come engage, where people could be involved in process.”
The Resurrection Project, therefore, is taking a unique, participatory approach to filming “The Resurrection.” The team is already talking to church and parachurch organizations, investors, Christians in Hollywood, and is now reaching out to the church at large to become what they call “spiritual producers” in the film.
The film’s website explains a spiritual producer is “an individual who has pledged to pray for the Resurrection Project, donated and spread the word (i.e. via Facebook, Twitter, email, word of mouth).”
But more than just looking for prayer partners and investors, the Resurrection Project is inviting the spiritual producers to get involved in the process, including contests for submitting script ideas, helping to select the director and cast, appointing screenwriters and more. They’re even planning an opportunity to win a trip for two to the movie set … in Israel.
Zahn fails to make clear what, exactly, "The Resurrection" would cover, since "The Passion of the Christ" ends with Jesus' resurrection. Zahn also fails to tell us what "Hollywood veteran" David Wood has done before this project.
The important thing, apparently, is that Zahn did falsely link it to another, successul film and included clickable text that states, "Discover how you can get involved in making 'The Resurrection' by clicking here!"
