Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president now in prison for plotting a coup, is getting the biopic treatment.
Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, is reportedly filming a “heroic” portrait of the rightwing ex-politician in secret. Dark Horse, directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh and written by Mário Frias, who served as secretary of culture under Bolsonaro, started shooting three months ago in Brazil, where Bolsonaro served as president from 2019 until 2023. He was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison in September 2025 for leading a criminal conspiracy to stop his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking power, though his supporters deny the allegations and have compared the prosecution to the “lawfare” allegedly faced by Donald Trump before he was re-elected.
The plot, which involved a plan to assassinate Lula and his running mate, foundered after military chiefs refused to take part. The court found that Bolsonaro and six accomplices tried to “annihilate” Brazilian democracy and return Latin America’s largest democracy to dictatorship.
Frias began posting clips from the project showing Caviezel in costume as Bolsonaro on Monday. The film also stars Lynn Collins and Esai Morales, and will conclude production in Mexico and the US in 2026.
Bolsonaro’s son Carlos confirmed the film’s existence on X, posting a photo of himself with Caviezel in costume as his father. “I know your legacy will continue to be admired by good people and envied by those who seek destruction – yet the message you imprint with every step leaves its mark on the world,” he wrote of Caviezel, ending the post with “God, Jesus and Freedom!”
Based on leaks and an unofficial first look, the film appears to focus on Bolsonaro’s 2018 campaign for the presidency, emphasizing his military background. At the time, the disgraced and controversial ex-president drew international outrage for saying that Brazil’s Indigenous people “are increasingly becoming human beings just like us” and that he would rather his son die in a car accident than be gay, among many other racist, homophobic and misogynistic remarks.
Following his breakout in 90s and early aughts films such as The Thin Red Line and Frequency as well as The Passion of the Christ, Caviezel repositioned himself as a representative of Christian Hollywood and the conservative right. To promote his 2023 film Sound of Freedom, which some criticized as Q-Anon adjacent in its paranoia about child sex trafficking, he appeared at various Q-Anon-affiliated events and on a podcast with the Trump ally Steve Bannon. He also appeared on the Maga figure Mike Lindell’s TV channel, among other rightwing media appearances.
The actor is also a public supporter of Donald Trump, endorsing him in 2024 and referring to him as “The new Moses”.
Caviezel was most recently set to star in Resurrection of the Christ, Gibson’s follow-up to his 2004 film. He was recast after the director failed to find an adequate way to digitally de-age him.
Bolsonaro began serving his 27-year sentence, in a parking space-sized room in the capital of Brasília, last month.
