MEL Gibson will release a new, low-violence version of his 2004 hit The Passion of The Christ next month, it was reported yesterday.
The star, dubbed Hollywood's most powerful figure since the success of the gory film, is trimming six minutes ahead of its March 11 reappearance.
The original film raked in $480 million in its North American run that began on Ash Wednesday a year ago, but Gibson noted that many people had avoided it because of its grisly portrayal of Jesus being tortured.
"There has been quite a demand by the religious community to bring [the film] back for Easter," Bruce Davey, Gibson's partner at Icon Productions, said.
"And there has been a lot of discussion about the violence. Mel wanted to accommodate those people by making a softer, gentler version," he said.
The Passion Recut will be beamed on to 500 to 750 screens unencumbered by an audience age restriction. "There are no new scenes, and the cuts are limited to the more violent aspects. The scourging scene in particular has been substantially adjusted."
The film caused huge controversy in the US with Jewish leaders accusing the devoutly-Catholic Gibson of anti-Semitism by portraying Jews as responsible for Christ's death.