~ Auto Buzz ~: The Passion Of The Christ 2 Is In The Works; Will It Be Banned In Malaysia?

Here’s an exciting piece of news that just broke a few hours ago. According to a report by USA Today, actor Jim Caviezel has confirmed that he’s getting ready to reprise his role as Jesus Christ in an untitled sequel to Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”.

Caviezel claims that he and Gibson have had numerous discussions about the project and he’s confident in Gibson’s vision.

“There are things that I cannot say that will shock the audience. It’s great … I won’t tell you how he’s going to go about it, but I’ll tell you this much, the film he’s going to do is going to be the biggest film in history. It’s that good.”

The sequel will, of course, be about the resurrection of the son of God, following the brutal events that transpired in the first “The Passion of the Christ”. Many wondered why the sequel wasn’t made all those years ago, after all the first movie did come out more than a decade ago, in 2004. Perhaps Gibson being a giant racist asshole and an alcoholic had something to do with it, and so, was ostracized by Hollywood for a good 10 years. He finally made a triumphant return in 2016 with “Hacksaw Ridge”.

If what Caviezel says is true, then the much-awaited sequel may be coming sooner rather than later. He went on to say:

“Braveheart, that’s a film that took a long time to be able to crack. The same thing for Passion. And the same thing for this. He’s finally got it. So that is coming.”

The question is, will this potentially GREAT film even be screened in Malaysia? Or will our awesome censor board — Lembaga Penapis Filem — ban it? Back in 2004, our censor board allowed “The Passion of the Christ” to be screened on the big screens, but “for Christian eyes only.” Sounds like a f**king joke, right? Well, that literally happened.

Tickets could only be bought by Christians (as if there’s a way to prove one’s religion), at churches and whatnot. In other words, nobody gave a sh*t about this dumb rule. Like my parents, who just got their friends to buy the tickets for them. But this rule did achieve one thing, though: It made Malaysia look like a joke in the eyes of the rest of the world, something that we’ve proven to be exceptionally talented at.

Recently, the Lembaga Penapis Filem banned the popular Indian film, “Padmaavat”. According to the popular Indian website, The Hindu, The chairman of National Film Censorship Board (LPF) Mohd Zamberi Abdul Aziz had this to say:

“The storyline of the film touches on the sensitivities of Islam. That in itself is a matter of grave concern in Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country.”

Interestingly enough, the censor board in PAKISTAN — a country with a 95-98% Muslim population — has cleared the film and it’s set to be screened without any cuts, with a ‘U’ certification.