Producers Of ‘The Bible’ Taking Jesus To Theaters In 2014

[John81]

Producers of ‘The Bible’ Taking Jesus to Theaters in 2014

 

Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, producers of the successful The Bible miniseries on the History Channel, have signed a pact with 20th Century Fox to take the Jesus Christ portions of the miniseries into movie theaters next year, with additional scenes not in the telecast.

Titled Son of God, the movie will focus on Christ’s story from His birth through the Resurrection. It features Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado as Jesus and Downey as His mother, Mary.

“While we appreciated the interest from other distributors, Fox was the right choice for us,” Burnett says. “This movie deserves a big studio behind it. We have crafted a powerful standalone movie that is a completely emotional, uplifting experience for audiences.”

Fox will also handle the home video release of Son of God.

The Bible averaged 15 million viewers over five two-hour parts on TV. It’s sold more than 1 million DVD units, which makes it the highest-selling TV-to-disc title of the past two years, according to Fox. It’s also become the highest-selling TV miniseries of all time on home video.

Downey led a cast that made Touched by an Angel a cultural phenomenon on American television during the 1990s. Burnett, her husband, is the mastermind behind such reality TV powerhouses as The Voice, Survivor and The Apprentice.

The pair has already signed with NBC to do a regular series titled AD: Beyond the Bible.

Their success with The Bible and, now, the theatrical version of Son of God is testimony to Movieguide’s long-held contention, as proven by theatrical movie and home video sales from Hollywood collected by Movieguide, that people want uplifting entertainment with strong Christian, biblical values.

 

http://www.charismanews.com/culture/41039-producers-of-the-bible-taking-jesus-to-theaters-in-2014

[TheSword]

I'm fairly certain I'll miss this one. I had such high hopes for the series before it ran, but they just went way off the reservation with too many things that changed the truth, particularly portraying Moses as a magical revolutionary harnessing God's power and Jesus as an eccentric man trying to "change the world."

 

I really wanted it to be good and Biblically solid, but they missed the mark in several big ways.

[John81]

I didn't expect much from the series and then found out it was worse than I imagined. No doubt the movie will be more of the same, perhaps even worse. The producers put too much Catholicism and secularism into the mix as they tried to spice it up to make it more appealing to a wider audience.

 

When I read the Bible there are many portions that I've thought, "Wow! What a great movie this would make!" However, even with the biblical stories being filled with excitement, adventure and the added bonus of reality, it seems those who make "biblical movies" are not content to go with the Bible story but feel compelled to add and subtract, which ends up detracting from the actual story.

 

Even films put forth which do follow a biblical narrative (typically from an MV, especially these days) fail in that the way the characters are portrayed seem contrived, highly unlikely and often overly sensationalized.

 

No doubt many churches and Christian "leaders" will endorse this movie and millions of Christians will flock to it as they did for the The Passion. Unfortunately, they will likely come away with a distorted or outright wrong view of Christ.

[JerryNumbers]

Can we expect Hollywood to get anything right when it comes to Jesus & His Father? Of course not, its a money making operation. Yet for many they will believe Hollywood is providing them with the pure Gospel.

[swathdiver]

Well, Hollywood had Sons of Guns, then Sons of Anarchy, so this follows the same theme. 

[John81]

This isn't new. Christians have been supporting Catholic and secular tainted programs as "wholesome, family friendly, Christian shows" for a very long time now. Catholic Michael Landon saw success with this in "Little House On The Prairie" and "Highway To Heaven". "Touched By An Angel" and other "Christian" programs had Christian audiences propping them up.

 

Even well before then there were many "good" shows Christians praise even though they promoted feminism, ecumenicism, drinking, smoking, taking matters into your own hands, and either gave a distorted view of Christianity or left it out.

 

Today we have Superman movies featuring sinful relations and other bad things yet Christians do mental gymnastics to declare the movie to be "Christian themed".

 

These days most Christians now believe that any movie featuring a "good vs. evil' theme to be Christian and good to watch.

 

In reality, unless the program or movie shows Christianity in reality, depicts God and Jesus biblically, presents salvation biblically, shows how Christians are to abide in Christ, the show is not Christian and most likely little more than being akin to secular music.

 

Odd really, that some Christians will rant and rave against secular music yet they are fine with watching secular TV and movies that they like.

[TheSword]

No doubt many churches and Christian "leaders" will endorse this movie and millions of Christians will flock to it as they did for the The Passion. Unfortunately, they will likely come away with a distorted or outright wrong view of Christ.

 

It's been many years since I've seen The Passion of the Christ; certainly before I started to actually read and study my Bible. What were some of the issues with it?

[John81]

It's been many years since I've seen The Passion of the Christ; certainly before I started to actually read and study my Bible. What were some of the issues with it?

Very Catholic-centric and very unbiblical.

[TheSword]

Very Catholic-centric and very unbiblical.

 

Does anything particular come to mind? I suppose I could watch it again but...well you know.

[John81]

Does anything particular come to mind? I suppose I could watch it again but...well you know.

The portrayal of Mary was Catholic, with Mary seen as more than just a typical human. There was also suggestions of a mystical type connection between Jesus and Mary. Some of the scenes with the devil went way into the extra-biblical field.

 

I wish I could be more specific. It's been a long while since I saw the movie, and then it was as I caught portions of it at a time (it's a long movie) over a few weeks as it was shown continually on TBN.

 

Gibson, a Catholic, set out to make the movie Catholic.

[TheSword]

Makes sense. I don't recall Mary being a huge emphasis, but like I said, that was way before I studied or knew much about it all. I'll take your word for it.

[Doc Flay]

It is a shame that the Christian community couldn't pull together, some how, enough funds to produce our own version of the life of Christ, using the Bible as the script, and thus eliminating the need for writers, saving that over-all cost to the movie production.  

[John81]

It is a shame that the Christian community couldn't pull together, some how, enough funds to produce our own version of the life of Christ, using the Bible as the script, and thus eliminating the need for writers, saving that over-all cost to the movie production.  

We "could" but we don't. Just look at the films Sherwood Baptist has put forth. Such a project could be done.

 

There have been attempts in the past, but even when they follow Scripture rather than a man-made script, the problem seems to continually come about in how Jesus, the disciples, and sometimes others, are portrayed.

 

I don't think Jesus carried Himself and spoke like some sort of "flower power hippy" nor do I think He was continually somber, speaking in hushed tones in an unnatural way. Peter is too often portrayed as some angry, pushy guy. John is sometimes portrayed almost as effeminate. The other disciples are often portrayed as disorganized goofs, not sure what they are doing. And how often have we seen John the Baptist portrayed as some wild man speaking in an almost deranged manner? In some movies there are even subtle and sometimes not so subtle, insinuations that one or more of the women followers of Jesus have a thing for Him or there may be something between them.

 

Naturally, any of the Bible-based movies Hollywood has a hand in always deviates from Scripture and reality. The Ten Commandments, with Charlton Heston, has some great, biblically sound scenes, but then there is much "filler" in that long movie as well. My biggest complaint about that particular movie is the portrayal of Moses as a man not even sure if God exists, one who seems to be questioning God, Himself and the situation much more than Scripture seems to indicate. I've seen other movies on this which were much worse. With family I've used the Ten Commandments to point out what is biblical truth and what's been added and how and why what's been added probably is or isn't close to accurate. That has led to some great discussions, especially when our children were little.

[Doc Flay]

We "could" but we don't. Just look at the films Sherwood Baptist has put forth. Such a project could be done.

 

There have been attempts in the past, but even when they follow Scripture rather than a man-made script, the problem seems to continually come about in how Jesus, the disciples, and sometimes others, are portrayed.

 

I don't think Jesus carried Himself and spoke like some sort of "flower power hippy" nor do I think He was continually somber, speaking in hushed tones in an unnatural way. Peter is too often portrayed as some angry, pushy guy. John is sometimes portrayed almost as effeminate. The other disciples are often portrayed as disorganized goofs, not sure what they are doing. And how often have we seen John the Baptist portrayed as some wild man speaking in an almost deranged manner? In some movies there are even subtle and sometimes not so subtle, insinuations that one or more of the women followers of Jesus have a thing for Him or there may be something between them.

 

Naturally, any of the Bible-based movies Hollywood has a hand in always deviates from Scripture and reality. The Ten Commandments, with Charlton Heston, has some great, biblically sound scenes, but then there is much "filler" in that long movie as well. My biggest complaint about that particular movie is the portrayal of Moses as a man not even sure if God exists, one who seems to be questioning God, Himself and the situation much more than Scripture seems to indicate. I've seen other movies on this which were much worse. With family I've used the Ten Commandments to point out what is biblical truth and what's been added and how and why what's been added probably is or isn't close to accurate. That has led to some great discussions, especially when our children were little.

I really like the idea you have in your last sentence; using these movies to point out inaccuracies in them.

Another disciple often portrayed inaccurately in all these movies would be Judas Iscariot. He is almost always portrayed as being innocent in the act of betraying Christ; Almost as though he was tricked into it or even manipulated somehow.      

[JerryNumbers]

I recall reading an article several years back about a movie theater in a mid-size town that only showed movies that were suitable for the whole family, not movies with any type of adult entertainment, bad language & so on, the man went broke.

 

Those people, including Christians, who go to the movie theater do not want only family type movies, they want worldly movies with all kinds of ungodly entertainment.