Cannes: Richard Gere to Star in Jon Avnet’s ‘Three Christs’

July 19, 2016

The film centers on a doctor treating three paranoid schizophrenic patients who all believe they are Jesus Christ.
Call it a holy trinity of sorts.

Richard Gere is set to star in Jon Avnet’s Three Christs, playing a doctor treating three paranoid schizophrenic patients who all believe they are Jesus Christ.

Three Christs, a potentially hot-button film, marks Gere and Avnet’s second collaboration. The first was MGM’s controversial Red Corner in 1997, a film that led to Chinese star Bai Ling having her Chinese citizenship revoked.

Based on a biographical novel by Milton Rokeach titled Rokeach’s Christs of Ypsilanti: A Narrative Study of Three Lost Men, the film was adapted by Eric Nazarian and Avnet.

Highland Film Group is financing and will unveil the project to international buyers at the upcoming Cannes film market. CAA is repping domestic rights.

Avnet is producing alongside Brooklyn Films’ Aaron Stern and Highland’s Arianne Frasier and Delphine Perrier. Molly Hassell (Terminal) also is producing.

The doctor treated the trio of patients at the Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, and what transpired is both comic and deeply moving.

Gere will next be seen in Oren Moverman’s star-studded family drama The Dinner alongside Steve Coogan, Chloe Sevigny, Rebecca Hall and Laura Linney.

Gere is repped by WME; Avnet is with CAA.