Dream Log: Sequel to 'Last Temptation of Christ'

I dreamed that a sequel to Martin Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ was being filmed. (During the dream I didn't know why anyone could've have wanted to film a sequel to Last Temptation of Christ, but as soon as I woke up I remembered that there are rumours that Mel Gibson plans to film a sequel to The Passion of the Christ. That alone, the fact that there are rumours, could very well cause a sequel to Last Temptation to be made in real life. Hollywood monkey-see, Hollywood monkey-do.) In the dream, Martin Scorsese was not associated with the remake and was on public record as having disparaged the whole enterprise. Nobody anywhere near the film industry expected this movie to be any good. But there was a lot of debate about whether it was going to be a huge financial success.

I was hired to play a small part in the movie. I was so far out of the loop that I had no idea what the plot of the movie was going to be like. I was on location out in the remote desert in Arizona, but I had not even been given the script for my part yet, let alone a copy of the entire screenplay. I didn't even know my character's name, whether I was playing Zebedee, or Peasant #2, or what. All I knew for certain was that while I was here on location, I was making a huge amount of money, from my perspective. From Hollywood's perspective, I was making scale. For those of you who don't know what scale is, I was making $3,488 a week, plus $1,005 a day for one, two or three days in addition to a week. Plus a location per diem which I didn't need because between free hotel room service, and craft services, which is what they call the superb caterers who provide meals on film sets, I didn't have any idea what I could spend my money on.

Many others in the cast and crew seemed to be in a situation similar to mine: no idea what, if anything, was going on with the movie, but making more money than they were used to. From a purely capitalistic viewpoint, for us it was a brilliant arrangement. From an artistic point of view it was very frustrating. 

Our production had taken over a nice hotel in the desert. Other than the hotel, there was literally no man-made structure for miles around. I wondered why people came to this hotel if they weren't making a desert-themed movie. Off-road racing, perhaps? There was a group of young actors and actresses, in their 20's, I guessed, who got very restless out here in the middle of nowhere, and snuck out at night and drove to the nearest bar, miles away, to spend that per diem. One early morning, they could be seen on hotel security-camera footage, sneaking back into their hotel rooms through the windows. One of the women in this group was particularly beautiful, even compared to other young actresses, so beautiful that she was striking even on hotel security camera footage when she was horribly drunk and falling clumsily through an open hotel window. 

For some reason, this security camera footage was being passed around the cast and crew via our phones and other mobile devices. Most of us seemed to agree about two things: 1) these young people didn't have to try to hide the fact that they were going out nights looking for fun. It didn't bother anyone. And 2) that beautiful young woman most likely would have a fairly good acting career based on looks alone. And if she could actually also act, she could become a superstar. She was Jennifer Lawrence-level beautiful -- so beautiful that it actually sort of hurts.

 I woke up before learning anything at all about my part, and before seeing anything which resembled actual film production.

Why Don't People Mention The Last Temptation Of Christ And The Gospel Of Judas In The Same Breath?

In 1953, Nikos Kazantzakis published his novel The Last Temptation of Christ, a version of the story of Jesus in which Judas was Jesus' closest disciple, and betrayed him to the Romans on Jesus' instruction, in order that Jesus might fulfill his mission and the will of God. That is to say, he published the original Greek version of that novel in 1953. The English translation appeared in 1960, spreading the controversy and scandal over Kazantzakis' unorthodox tale, and the controversy was spread much wider still in 1988, when Martin Scorsese's film version of the novel appeared, with Willem Dafoe in the role of Jesus. It was Scorsese's 3rd attempt to make the movie. In the 1st go-round Robert DeNiro was going to play Jesus, the filming was to take place in Jerusalem, and the budget was going to be around $40 million dollars. But the film's financial backers backed out, afraid of the controversy. The 2nd attempt went as far as Aiden Quinn growing a beard in order to play Jesus. Again, just like Peter after Jesus' arrest being accused of knowing Jesus, the money people became sore afraid for a 2nd time and the project was abandoned again. When Scorsese finally got it done with Dafoe as Jesus, he filmed in Morocco on an $8 million budget.

And a lot of people flipped out. In Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1988, someone drove a car through a wall of a theatre planning to show the movie, and behold, the theatre owners were sore afraid, and The Last Temptation of Christ got its Knoxville premiere a couple of years later when it was shown by the University of Tennessee Film Committee, a dedicated group of film lovers notable not only for their good taste in movies but also for their guts.

Meanwhile, in the 1970's, the Coptic Gnostic text now known as the Gospel of Judas was discovered in Egypt. It was published in 2006, and widely remarked upon and exclaimed over for its "novel" version of the story of Jesus, in which Judas was Jesus' closest disciple, and betrayed him to the Romans on Jesus' instruction, in order that Jesus might fulfill his mission and the will of God.

And apparently, out of all of the billions of people on Earth, I'm the only one who has noticed the similarity between the Gospel of Judas and Kazantzakis' novel, written 2 decades before the Gospel was discovered and 5 decades before it was published, the novel also having been made into a famously controversial and scandalous Hollywood movie in the meantime also.

Well. I guess it's a darn good thing I'm around to point out things which somehow weren't already obvious to everybody! Can I have that Nobel now?

PS: Just as with the similarities between Homer and the Pentateuch which I pointed out in a recent post, I suppose that it's possible that an entire community of scholarly folks has been excitedly discussing the similarities all along, and I've simply never noticed. Possible but not bloody likely.

The Plug, the Beards, the Dreams

I wonder to what extent Martin Scorsese works with exactly the people he wants to work with. I can't imagine a lot of people hearing that Scorsese wants them to work on one of his movies, and saying, "No, thanks."

Except, of course, for those pesky people who actually come up with the money to make the movies. The plug got pulled on The Last Temptation of Christ twice. Originally shooting was scheduled to begin after The King of Comedy was done, in Israel, with a huge budget, huge sets, great crowds of extras playing Roman soldiers and so forth. Robert De Niro was going to play Jesus -- of course. De Niro as Jesus, Harvey Keitel as Judas, anothor DeNiro/Keitel/Scorsese joint, perfect. But the financiers got nervous because it was "controversial," and they pulled out. The beard De Niro is wearing in The Mission:

and in Angel Heart is the one he originally grew to play Jesus.

Then the Last Temptation of Christ project was started up again, after Scorsese had made After Hours. Aidan Quinn was going to be Jesus this time, he had the long beard rockin and was all set, but again, Lo, the balls of the money people did shrivel and they were sore afraid, and the project was canceled again, and Scorsese made The Color of Money instead. The version Scorsese finally made, with Willem Dafoe as Jesus, was shot in Morocco on a very tight budget. (For example, there are only five people playing Roman soldiers in the whole movie.)

Imagine if the original big-budget De Niro version had been made. Not counting the documentary The Last Waltz, that would've made six Scorsese movies in a row with De Niro in them, five in a row with De Niro in the lead role, and three, after Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, with both De Niro and Keitel.

Imagine what might have been. Maybe Scorsese and De Niro and Keitel would've kept working together constantly. As it is, since the first Temptation project fell apart, Scorsese and De Niro only worked together twice, on Goodfellas and Casino, and the only Scorsese picture Keitel has been in is Last Temptation.

Imagine if De Niro had never made any of those crappy movies he's made with other directors.

That's showbiz. All sorts of exciting projects never get off of the ground. Welles couldn't make Heart of Darkness, so he made Citizen Kane instead. And what's up with Scorsese's Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, with Leonardo Di Caprio as TR, is this being made or is it just a rumor?