Risen - The Story of the First Easter

Peter Chattaway posts the news from "Variety" that another film is being made about the first Easter. It will be produced by Ashok Amritraj (Bringing Down The House), and Patrick Aiello from Hyde Park Entertainment and has the working title Risen - The Story of the First Easter. "Variety" continue...

Hyde Park has hired scribe Paul Aiello to pen the script, which will center on the apostle Peter in telling the story of the time between the resurrection of Jesus and the Pentecost... Risen does not yet have a distributor, although Hyde Park has a deal at Fox...Amritraj said the time is right for faith-based entertainment considering the chaotic state of the world.

"And then secondly, clearly, I think there is a commercial marketplace and need for movies that have hope and values," Amritraj told Daily Variety. "It's a big deal for us."

Hyde Park intends to pursue other such projects.

I must admit that my head is spinning with the glut of films clambering over one another to claim the prize of rightful heir to The Passion of the Christ's throne. Peter lists three. L'Inchiesta / The Inquiry / The Final Inquiry features Hristo Shopov reprising the role of Pilate which he played in The Passion of the Christ. Screen Gems and Tim LaHaye are producing The Resurrection(Peter notes that the release date for this has now slipped to 27th Feb. 2009). Finally, he lists German / Canadian production The Sword of Peter, which I've not got around to blogging just yet.

On top of all this Peter also noted back in December that The Weinstein Company's Genius Products is due to release a DVD called Resurrection. It's supposedly based on a Max Lucado novel which suggests it will be a re-issue of Resurrection (1999) which Andrea Jobe adapted from a short story by Lucado. (As opposed to the Christopher Lambert one or the one directed by Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal's father Stephen).

That said, the "Variety" article which this quote comes from does describe it as "picking up where The Passion left off". Either way I'm not sure how much I trust Genius Products. They are, after all, the company who are set to release a colourised version of Pasoloni's Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo