Friars urge Gibson to film Assisi story

Published on Thursday 22 April 2004 01:00

MEL Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ has so impressed Franciscan friars in New York that they are petitioning him to follow it up with a film biography of their order’s founder, Saint Francis of Assisi.

More than 40,000 hits have been registered on the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal’s online "open letter and respectful petition" addressed to Gibson, and more than 8,000 readers have filled out the petition on the order’s website.

Father Glenn Sudano, the head of the community of 82 friars in New York, posted the petition after seeing the film, saying it would be a natural sequel and it was time for a realistic portrayal of Saint Francis.

"They dip these people in plaster," Fr Sudano said about perceptions of the saints. "They are much more powerful, more interesting, more engaging, much more human."

The Passion of the Christ has been a sensation at the box office, grossing more than $360 million (203 million) in the United States alone since its February release.

The open letter praises Gibson for his "extraordinary work of sacred art" and asks him "to produce a sequel which would show the world what happens when a person totally and unequivocally responds to the passion of the Christ".

Fr Sudano said recent films about Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals and the environment, presented caricatures.

He said Franco Zeffirelli’s 1972 film Brother Sun, Sister Moon "neutered and reduced Saint Francis and made him into something of a hippie", and the casting of Mickey Rourke in the title role of Francesco in 1989, directed by Liliana Cavani, was "not even a near miss", he said.

Fr Sudano said he hoped to get an audience with an associate of Gibson to discuss the project, but was keeping his options open.

Gibson’s representatives gave no immediate comment.