George Stevens was under pressure to hurry the John the Baptist sequence, which was shot at the Glen Canyon area. It was scheduled to become Lake Powell with the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam, and the production held up the project.
Telly Savalas Though it is reported all over the internet that Telly Savalas shaved his head bald for his role as Pontius Pilate in this movie, he had actually shaved it first for Fanfare For A Death Scene (1964) in which he played a Mongolian warlord. He kept it shaved for the rest of his life.
MGM spent upwards of $500,000 restoring the movie for its 2001 DVD release.
Producer and director George Stevens habitually took at least an entire year to edit his movies, once he had achieved complete artistic control over them. He usually shot dozens of takes of each scene, varying his camera angles from take to take, so that he would have a great deal of choice in the editing suite. In this case, so much footage was amassed that the movie's opening date, originally planned for Christmas 1964, had to be postponed because the editing was not completed, even though he had finished shooting in the late summer 1963. The movie opened at Easter 1965 with a running time of three hours and forty-five minutes, making it one of the longest movies of all time. It was recut several times subsequently, and this version has not been seen since the 1960s.
Producer and director George Stevens shot this movie in the American Southwest, in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. Pyramid Lake in Nevada represented the Sea of Galilee, Lake Moab in Utah was used to film the Sermon on the Mount, and California's Death Valley was the setting of Jesus' 40-day journey into the wilderness. Sections of the film were also shot at Lake Powell, Canyonlands and Dead Horse Canyon in Utah.
Stevens explained his decision to use the United States rather than in the Middle East or Europe in 1962. "I wanted to get an effect of grandeur as a background to Christ, and none of the Holy Land areas shape up with the excitement of the American Southwest," he said. "I know that Colorado is not the Jordan, nor is Southern Utah Palestine. But our intention is to romanticize the area and it can be done better here." Forty-seven sets were constructed, on-location and in Hollywood studios, to accommodate Stevens' vision.
Stevens explained his decision to use the United States rather than in the Middle East or Europe in 1962. "I wanted to get an effect of grandeur as a background to Christ, and none of the Holy Land areas shape up with the excitement of the American Southwest," he said. "I know that Colorado is not the Jordan, nor is Southern Utah Palestine. But our intention is to romanticize the area and it can be done better here." Forty-seven sets were constructed, on-location and in Hollywood studios, to accommodate Stevens' vision.