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In 1993, Bruce Marchiano starred as Jesus in The Visual Bible: Matthew, bringing lightness and humor to a role that many viewers embraced, saying they'd never seen the Lord portrayed in so human a manner in film.

Matthew was supposed to be the first of many films covering all 66 books of the Bible, each using dialogue taken verbatim from Scripture. Acts came a year later, also with Marchiano playing Jesus (and James Brolin as Simon Peter).

Then. Things. Stalled.

Marchiano says that one of the original investors—a group of eight South Africans who put up $800,000 to make Matthew—brought the idea for future films to some North American distributors and investors, first in the U.S. and then in Canada, and eventually, "everything broke loose," he says. "And then [Matthew] got pirated by some Hungarian company, all while I was on the sidelines, hearing about everything second hand. Watching it get kicked around like a can of soup was heartbreaking. It all got very ugly."

As Jesus in 'Matthew'

Ownership disputes and lawsuits abounded in a drama far too complex to detail here, and for all intents and purposes, the Visual Bible series idea is dead. But Marchiano never gave up hope of doing another Jesus movie someday, even if he had to do it on his own. And that's just what he plans to do next, with a word-for-word adaptation of the Gospel of John.

He's got a title: Jesus: No Greater Love. He's got a script. He's ready, even at the age of 54, to play the Son of God again, if needed. He just needs money—$45 million, in fact. Marchiano is appealing to regular folk all over the world to join a global community of "producers." He's hoping for 4.5 million people to put up $10 each to fund the film.

So far, he's only raised about $350,000. But Marchiano—like the Jesus in Matthew—remains optimistic. CT recently sat down with him to discuss his new film … and the old one that started it all in the first place.

What are your fondest memories of making Matthew?

My fondest memories are from the actual shoot. We filmed it in such innocence; we were so aware that we were over our heads spiritually and practically. It sounds so childlike, but we would gather every morning on our knees and pray our brains out, and then get out there. And the fruitfulness of it! To this day I hear, "You really spun around my understanding of who Jesus was. You really got me to seeking harder." From Christians and non-Christians, everywhere I go. It's very humbling.

What do you think you brought to the role that people liked so much?

The love, the passion, and the humanness. It was very intimate, blood, sweat and tears. We went out of our way to make Jesus, if I can put it this way, ugly, very little makeup. The guy never came around and combed my hair. In fact, there were times when he messed up my hair, because we wanted people to see the reality of Jesus.

After Matthew, what came next?

I came back home, and my heart was just upended. I had only been a Christian for a couple of years. Prior to that, my whole life was about winning that Academy Award some day. After Matthew, that didn't mean so much any more. It was a very, very difficult time, a time of soul searching. I tried to get back to work [as an actor], but I started getting these speaking invitations after the movie released. One invitation turned into ten, and that turned into a hundred, and that turned into a year, and then another. Before I knew it, that became a lifestyle and my source of income for a while.

There was an excellent version of The Gospel of John in 2003, starring Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond on Lost) as Jesus. So why do the John movie again?

The answer is simple: That's how the Lord led me, but I had battles with that in my own thinking. You begin to question yourself. You're praying, you're seeking God, and you get a sense of direction. You start to move and something happens that stands in the face of that direction. And you're like, "Really? Did I miss it?" But over time, I got little confirmations here and there.

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