(RNS) — Jim Caviezel, an actor famous for playing Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, “The Passion of the Christ,” will be playing former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in an English-language biopic expected to be released next year.
Bolsonaro, a former captain in the Brazilian army who rose to power with the support of the country’s evangelical Christians, is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup against current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after losing the 2022 election.
According to posts from people close to the production, “Dark Horse” will focus on Bolsonaro’s original quest for the presidency in 2018, with a screenplay written by Bolsonaro’s secretary of culture, Mário Frias. The film will be directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, the U.S. director whose 2025 film “Sarah’s Oil” was based on a true story about an Oklahoma girl’s faith that there is oil beneath her land.
Since starring in Gibson’s epic account of Jesus’ final days and his resurrection, Caviezel has become a prominent figure among political conservatives and evangelicals. He starred as the anti-trafficking activist Tim Ballard in the 2023 biopic “Sound of Freedom,” distributed by Angel Studios, originally behind the popular TV show “The Chosen,” which imagines the lives of the disciples of Jesus.
Shortly after the film was released, the Ballard was accused of battery and sexual assault by women who had worked with him. The film itself was criticized for presenting fictionalized scenes of heroism by Ballard without acknowledging that the script had strayed from reality.
Eduardo Verástegui, who plays Pablo in “Sound of Freedom,” will produce “Dark Horse,” according to Ballard.
Caviezel has drawn controversy for promoting conspiracy theories popular among Q-Anon followers, some of which he aired while promoting “Sound of Freedom,” causing some supporters of the film to complain he had limited the success of a film from the evangelical Christian sector.
But Carlos Bolsonaro, the son of the ex-president and a politician himself, thanked Caviezel for his involvement in “Dark Horse” in a post on X, showing a photo in which Caviezel appears to be costumed as the former president. “I know your legacy will continue to be admired by good people and envied by those who seek destruction – yet the message you imprint with every step leaves its mark on the world,” wrote Carlos. “God, Jesus and Freedom!” Carlos signed off, tagging Frias.
Influencer Heloísa Bolsonaro, who is married to another of Bolsonaro’s sons, posted a video on her Instagram stories showing a makeup team preparing Caviezel to play Bolsonaro.
Though Bolsonaro is Catholic, his third wife, Michelle, played a key role in introducing him to Brazil’s evangelical churches, and prominent evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia has been a major booster.
Evangelicals in Brazil’s legislature are attempting to reduce the former president’s sentence, a cause shared by U.S. President Donald Trump until recently. In a letter to Lula da Silva in July, Trump said he respected Bolsonaro greatly and called his trial a witch hunt. The letter also threatened to set tariffs on Brazilian goods entering the United States at 50%.
Those tariffs, which began Aug. 1, have since been removed, and on Friday (Dec. 12) sanctions that had been imposed in July on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a political enemy of Bolsonaro, were lifted.