October: A Busy Month for Bible Films

I can’t think of a time in which more has been happening on the bible film front as this coming month.

One Night With the King - At Cinemas from 13th October
First up there is the cinema release of Michael O. Sajbel’s One Night with the King - an adaptation of Tommy Tenny’s novel about Esther. This is going to be one of the first film’s released by the brand new “Fox Faith” label. Its release has been delayed by almost 2 years. The cast list, however, is impressive. In addition to Tiffany Dupont as the lead, Peter O'Toole, Omar Shrif and John Rhys Davies are also involved.

Color of the Cross - In Cinemas from 27th October
Also of great interest is the release of Jean Claude La Marre’s Color of the Cross, which is the first historical life of Jesus film to use a black actor to play Jesus. It’s unclear whether or not this is another “Fox Faith” film or not – certainly they will be distributing the DVD when that is released.

Jesus of Nazareth - Full version DVD Region 2 Release 16th October
This month also sees the long overdue region 2 DVD release of Jesus of Nazareth (1977). Whilst the 4 and a half hour version has been available for a while it’s good to see the proper version get released at last. As a bonus, it’s going to come with a nice metallic case. I’ll be reviewing the film later in the month in my first ever Jesus Films Podcast, and post a brief review of the DVD shortly.

Mary - DVD Release on 3rd October
Having only received a very limited cinematic release the region 2 DVD for Abel Ferrara’s Mary goes on sale on the 3rd. Ferrara’s film sounds like it is very, much along similar lines to Jesus of Montreal in terms of approach to its religious subject matter, but of course its theme and form maybe completely different. The film is about an actress playing Mary Magdalene in a film whose involvement with the film inspires her to go on a spiritual journey.

The Nativity Story at Heartland Film Festival
As I mentioned last week, Catherine Hardwicke’s The Nativity Story will be getting it’s first public viewing at the Heartland Film Festival. A week or so later the album "The Nativity Story: Sacred Songs" will be available to buy.

So plenty to look forward too. I’m slightly envious of those of you in North America as One Night With the King and Color of the Cross won’t get released here, at least for a while. Whilst I hope that I get sent review copies for these films, I won’t know until nearer the time. That said Mary doesn’t look like it's going to get a region 1 DVD release for sometime so I guess I’ll have to take the rough with the smooth.