Was the movie The Passion of Christ based on a book (other than the Bible)?  Was there a book titled The Passion of Christ?  Or did Mel Gibson get the storyline based just on the Bible?

Here's the link for the Amazon.com listing on The Last Temptation of Christ.  It looks to be vastly different from what I know about the movie The Passion of the Christ. 

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Temptation-Christ-Nikos-Kazantzakis/dp/068485256X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8881243-5432868?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187233676&sr=1-1

Mel Gibson based the movie on the Bible.  It's great if you want to read the real story! ;)

The film is actually called The Passion of the Christ  rather than The Passion of Christ.  "Christ" was not Jesus' last name, but rather a Greek word meaning "annointed."   "Passion," of course, refers in this context to Jesus' suffering and death on the cross, so the title of the film means, roughly, The Suffering and Death of the Annointed One.

Mel Gibson based his story on the Gospels, but also included material from Catholic Tradition (that's "Tradition" with a capital T -- official doctrine of the Church -- as opposed to "tradition" with a small t, which just means things that have been passed down) and from the writings of Catholic mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich.  Read about her at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Catherine_Emmerich .