Was God trying to tell Mel Gibson something?

According to Variety, the actor he hired as Jesus was struck by lightning while filming his controversial film “The Passion of Christ.”

While filming in a “remote location” a few hours outside of Rome, a lightening bolt hit Jim Caviezel and the film’s associate director Jan Michelini.

(Image: IP)

Michelini was being struck by lightning for the second time during the production, according to BBC entertainment news.

“We were shooting the Sermon on the Mount,” Jim told Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal.

“About four seconds before it happened it was quiet, and then it was like someone slapped my ears. I had seven or eight seconds of, like, a pink, fuzzy colour, and people started screaming.

“They said I had fire on the left side of my head and light around my body. All I can tell you is that I looked like I went to Don King’s hairstylist.”

According to the film’s producer, Steve McEveety, none of them was seriously injured.

When Caviezel and Michelini were zapped, they were both under the cover of the latter’s umbrella. “I’m about a hundred feet away from them, when I glance over and see lightning coming out of Caviezel’s ears. Both Caviezel and Michelini got struck,” producer Steve McEveety said. ”The main bolt hit Caviezel and one of its forks hit Michelini’s umbrella.”  Michelini had been struck while carrying an umbrella months before, according to Variety.

“[Filming The Passion of the Christ] nearly killed me,” Jim told Catholic News Service in 2018.

“Not many people get struck by lightning; I did. Five and a half months of cold.

“I had to have two heart surgeries, including open-heart surgery, because of that film.”

A lightning strike in Rome (Image: GETTY)

Actor Mel Gibson directed and co-wrote The Passion Of Christ, which centers on the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life and was shot in the ancient languages of Latin and Aramaic.

For months, “Passion” caused controversy. Christian leaders and conservative pundits who attended invitation-only screenings praised the film’s fidelity to the Gospels, while Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League have expressed concerns that the film blames Jews for Christ’s execution and would spark anti-Semitic violence. Gibson struggled to find a distributor in the United States, but later confirmed that that the picture would be released in the United States on Ash Wednesday by indie company Newmarket.

In exchange for a share of the income, the contract gave Newmarket, the distributor behind such indie hits as “Memento” and “Whale Rider,” restricted rights to manage the booking and advertising of “Passion.”

“We wouldn’t be supporting it if it was anti-Semitic,” Newmarket partner and co-founder William Tyrer told the New York Times, adding that his business was “uniquely qualified to carefully handle” the film’s marketing issues.

The Passion of the Christ stormed the global box office taking over $622 million worldwide.