Trivia / Jesus of Nazareth

• All-Star Cast: Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Olivia Hussey, Michael York, Ralph Richardson, Ian McShane, Ian Holm, James Mason, Rod Steiger, Anthony Quinn, James Earl Jones, Donald Pleasence, Anne Bancroft, Peter Ustinov, the list goes on.
• Banned in China: The series was banned in Egypt after religious leaders objected to its content.
• California Doubling: Morocco and Tunisia stand in for Israel. In particular, synagogue scenes were shot in Djerba Island in Tunisia, one of the last Arab Jewish enclaves in North Africa, while the town of Monastir, also in Tunisia, represents Jerusalem.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Robert Powell was originally considered for Judas.
  • Ian McShane was originally offered the role of Joseph of Arimathea. He turned it down, but held out for Judas Iscariot.
  • Laurence Olivier was originally announced to play Pontious Pilate before being cast as Nicodemus.
• Contractual Purity: Robert Powell was criticised by Christian groups for living unmarried with his girlfriend while intending to portray Jesus. They married right before production started.
• Creator Breakdown: The eight month shoot in Morocco took its toll on Olivia Hussey, who had to be away from her family (and two-year-old son) and couldn't even fly out on her days off - as Zeffirelli had her stay on location in case of last minute schedule changes. Left alone in the hotel all day whenever she wasn't filming, she took to drinking and even admitted to being drunk when shooting the crucifixion scene.
• Deleted Scene:
  • Some scenes like the scene where Jesus walks on water; or the wedding at Cana; or the Transfiguration were cut from the final work to reduce the overall running time.
  • Despite being advertised as the full, uncut original version, the Shout Factory! is missing two key scenes (totaling 8 minutes) that were present in the original broadcast but were cut from the UK film print Shout Factory! used as their source.
  • Zeffirelli filmed the first meeting of Jesus with his disciples post resurrection described in John 20:19-29, however he later decided to cut that scene from the finished film. He later explained that to leave it in would take part of the mystery of the resurrection away from audiences.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Robert Powell starved himself on a diet of only cheese for twelve days so that he would look emaciated for the crucifixion.
• Hey, It's That Place!: Some of the same sets were used for Monty Python's Life of Brian. Many of the extras from Jesus of Nazareth also acted as extras for Life of Brian.
• I Am Not Spock: Because Robert Powell looked so much like Jesus in pictures, every time he exited his dressing room in costume, the foul language the crew was using would suddenly stop.
• International Coproduction: The series was a joint production between ITC Entertainment and Italy's RAI.
• Looping Lines: A lot of the local extras didn't speak English, and their lines had to be dubbed in post production. Large amounts of scenes were filmed with the intention of dubbing later.
• Playing Against Type: Anthony Burgess co-wrote the screenplay.
• Uncredited Role:
  • Norman Eshley as the voice of Joseph.
  • Harold Bennett as an elder.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Franco Zeffirelli considered both Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino for the part of Jesus.
  • Peter O'Toole was cast as Judas, but had to back out of the project due to illness.
  • Elizabeth Taylor wanted to play Mary Magdalene.
  • Zeffirelli wanted Marcello Mastroianni for the role of Pontius Pilate, but they couldn't agree on financial terms. Zeffirelli was happy in the end as he felt that Rod Steiger was a "magnificent Pilate".

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