The hugely successful Biblical epic, The Passion of the Christ is to be re-released again this Easter. Mel Gibson’s new version, however, will be edited to take out many of the more-violent scenes that stopped younger viewers from being able to see the original release.

The new release will be entitled – ‘The Passion – Recut’, and will have six minutes cut out from the original. The extraction of the most horrific scenes has allowed the rating for the film to be lowered to a 15 certificate, instead of the 18 that was originally assigned.

Gibson commented, "I hope to cater to those people that perhaps might not have seen the original because of its intensity or brutality."

Many fans of the original have expressed their excitement of the re-release and have indicated that they again will take to the cinemas on March 25th – Good Friday when the film opens in UK cinemas.

Despite the film’s unprecedented box office success as a biblical epic, the film was highly controversial when it first hit the cinemas a year ago. The Passion of the Christ depicted the final 12 hours of Jesus’ life, and showed many brutal scenes of Jesus being beaten and tortured. Many critics condemned the film for its violent portrayal, but as many if not more commended the film for the same reason – and applauded Gibson for not holding back.

The original film, released in February 2004, made a gigantic £317m (US$610) in the global box office. In addition, it sold more than 2.4million copies in DVD format by midday on its first day on release. In a single week it surpassed the DVD sales of the multi-Oscar winning The Lord of the Rings – selling nearly 9million copies within 7 days.