Only the date of this convinces me I haven't written it up before, it seems so weirdly familiar. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has optioned Oni Press' Resurrection, the third title the studio has snagged from the small publisher.

Penned by Marc Guggenheim, a Wolverine scribe and the writer behind the television series Eli Stone, Resurrection is the story of a post alien invasion Earth. It begins where most sci-fi movies end, with a group of survivors trying to retake and rebuild the planet.

There's an eleven page preview of issue #1 over on Oni's website, full of those usual issue-one hints -- apparently there was a human counterattack of some kind, and we're reduced to communicating via smoke signals. It looks like the series is going to end at six issues, which is like the magic number these days. Eleven pages is just not enough to go on for me -- I can't help but compare it to The Stand (which I caught again on that Sci-Fi Channel broadcast), and it doesn't hook me as well as eleven minutes of that, but that is hardly fair.

No word on director or release date. These post-apocalyptic stories are really the rage -- thank goodness for the cuddly comfort that is The Hobbit, or I am going to be having nightmares for weeks. Alien invasion movies and me are not a good mix.

I was seriously wondering when this would happen. Weren't you? Sony Pictures' Screen Gems division is working on a film that continues the story of Jesus following the events in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Wait, didn't Jesus die at the end of that? Yes, but according to The Bible he returned a few days after dying on the cross, and it is this resurrection that will be the focus of Sony's film, tentatively called The Resurrection. The script is written by TV-movie scribe Lionel Chetwynd and is being produced by Reverend Tim LaHaye, co-author of the Left Behind books.

From what it looks like, Sony is going for the gold in no-brainer, easy-money film production. With little more than a release date picked out (Easter, of course) and a guarantee that Christian audiences who stormed theaters for The Passion will be back for Jesus' return, the studio is likely already counting its profits. Since this isn't a real sequel (the first was released by Newmarket Films), it is doubtful that James Caviezel will be back (and after being struck by lightning during production of the first, he should want to stay away). I also will not be surprised if Resurrection is filmed in English instead of the ancient languages spoken in Passion.

Well, I can say one thing for the film, which should go all the way and use the title The Resurrection of the Christ, and that is it should bring about less controversy. With less finger-pointing and much, much, much less violence, it should be important and enjoyable for its audience. I'll just be glad to not have that lump in the back of my dry throat I experienced while watching Passion.