<P> The notion of making a six - hour television film on the life of Jesus Christ was proposed by an enobled British Jew, with the golden blessing of an American automobile corporation . The project struck some as blasphemous, others as ecumenical . Lord Grade, who was then Sir Lew Grade, presided over a massive press conference in the Holy City, (Rome), and said all that was available to be said--namely, that there would be this film, that Zeffirelli would direct it, and that Burgess would write it . Fired by this announcement, the Romans laid on a great, as it were, First Supper, which the Chief Rabbi of Rome attended, as well as various cricket - playing British ecclesiastics . Sir Lew Grade was made a Cavaliere of the Republic . The Pope was noticeably absent . </P> <P> Both Grade and Zeffirelli insisted their adaptation of Jesus' life should be' ecumenical', coherent, even to non-believers, and' acceptable to all denominations' . To ensure the film's accuracy, the producers consulted experts from the Vatican, the Leo Baeck Rabbinical College of London, and the Koranic School at Meknes, Morocco . However, when Zeffirelli asked Rabbi Albert Friedlander to help him create Jesus' Bar Mitzvah scene, the latter replied that such ceremonies were practiced only from the 15th century . The director, however, insisted on including it, and Friedlander tried to teach child actor Lorenzo Monet to read a short portion of the Pentateuch in Hebrew . Monet, however, mumbled it and the director was not satisfied (in the film, boy Jesus reads mostly in English). </P> <P> Principal photography was carried out in Morocco and Tunisia from September 1975 to May 1976 . The synagogue scenes were shot with extras from the Jewish community in the island of Djerba . The city of Monastir served as 1st Century Jerusalem . Ernest Borgnine, who portrayed Cornelius the Centurion, recalled that since regulations required hiring local extras--most with poor English--for many of the smaller roles, they had to be dubbed . Zeffirelli decided to avoid recording sound altogether in many parts, and simply send the principal actors to dub their own characters in the studio later . The standing sets of the film were later used by the British comedy troupe Monty Python for their religious satire Life of Brian (1979). </P> <P> There are various reports regarding the size of the miniseries' budget: Presbyterian Survey stated it was $12 million, The Listener cited the figure of £ 9 million (roughly $16 million), while Third Way stated it cost £ 11.5 million (roughly $20 million). Other sources give the sum of $18 million . In his autobiography, Lew Grade wrote that "in the final accounting, Jesus of Nazareth took $45 million ." </P>

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