Various New Jesus Film Projects

Been a bit busy of late, so not had time to link to Peter Chattaway's latest round up of Jesus films news.

One of the films Peter discusses at length is Bruce Marchiano's Jesus ... No Greater Love. The news is that Marchiano is releasing a 15th Anniversary Edition of The Gospel According to Matthew. The film has been repackaged and "coupled it with a first-ever, two CD audio re-issue of 'In the Footsteps of Jesus'". Profits from the sale will go towards funding Marchiano's Jesus ... No Greater Love which seems to be the new name for the film that was being called the Gospel of John. Incidentally, can anyone else think of any other films that have an ellipsis in the title. I can think of one other and it's a sort of Bible film, but not many others are springing to mind.

Other news is that both Jesus and Esther from The Bible Collection have been re-released; that Not the Messiah (Python Oratorio based on Life of Brian) has been given an MPAA rating, suggesting it may get an video release in addition to it's current limited cinema release (which comes to Leicester on 25th March); that Mark Millar has failed to find a studio to make American Jesus; and that there are a couple of animated Nativity films at different stages of pre-production, The Fourth Wise Man and an Egnlish language version of the Spanish film Holy Night!.

This reminds me, speaking of animated Jesus films, I don't think I ever blogged another story from Peter about At Jesus' Side (trailer), a film about four dogs who witness Jesus' death and resurrection. It's being released on March 16th, and looks pretty darn awful. I've not been sent a review copy though so I guess I'll never really know for sure. They have a blog as well for anyone who wants to find out more.

Incidentally, seeing as I'm speaking about FilmChat today I'd like to link to this post of his which starts off being about Avatar but actually ends up being interesting. Peter's point is that in (western filmed) battle scenes you nearly always find the side you sympathise with coming from the left. This has affected the way I have watched various battle scenes since then including one from Channel 4's 1066 where the French come from the left despite the largely pro-Saxon stance the film adopts throughout. Food for thought.