 John Cleese (qv) wanted George Lazenby (qv) to play the part of  Jesus. He said it would be in his opinion absolutely hilarious, and  he wanted the tagline of the film to be "George Lazenby IS Jesus  Christ". But when the films producers contacted Lazenbys agent  they were informed that Lazenby was overseas working on another film  project and was unavailable. Kenneth Colley (qv) was then cast as  Jesus.