2015's Coming Attractions

This post has been edited more than once to add in extra films omitted in error when it was originally published.

Having reviewed 2014's Bible film offerings I thought it would be a good idea to preview some of the films that will be appearing on both the big and small screen across the course of the next 12 months. In contrast to last year - where it was the films based on the Hebrew Bible which were in the majority, this year it's almost entirely New Testament films. So in no particular order here's what's coming up in 2015.

Last Days in the Desert
Arguably the most interesting sounding of this year's offerings is Last Days in the Desert which premieré's at the Sundance film festival in a few days time. It's had a good deal of press coverage, not least in the UK, due mainly to the presence of Ewan MacGregor as both Jesus and Satan. The film will deal with Jesus' 40 days in the desert and also stars The Nativity Story's Ciarán Hinds. The official website is still a bit sparse, but Christianity Today has a lengthy interview with both MacGregor and director Rodrigo Garcia.

A.D. (NBC)
If the premise of Last Days sounds like it might be sailing a little close to the wind for some, one production that will be playing it considerably safer will be NBC's 12-hour New Testament series A.D.. To some it's a sequel to 2013's The Bible; to others a remake of the 1985 series of the same name, though that film was also often referred to as Anno Domini. NBC have done away with all that, ensuring that the series will be impossible to search for, if a little easier to tweet about. The trailer for the film was released a few days ago and features Peter and Jesus fairly prominently, but not a great deal of Saul/Paul. There's a little more on NBC's official site as well as a companion site featuring a glut of resources for churches and character profiles. The series premieré is on Easter Sunday (5th April 2015).

Clavius
Another film certain to feature legions of Roman armies is Clavius starring the other, other, other child star of the Harry Potter series, Tom Felton. Felton will play alongside Joseph Fiennes in the story about "an agnostic Roman legionnaire" who is "thrust into the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ". Details are still emerging, not least whether it is Felton or Fiennes who will play the titular character, and when, in relation to the death of Jesus, will the story start and end. It's also unclear just how much of a cameo Jesus will play in this film. Fiennes' brother, of course, played the part of Jesus in The Miracle Maker.

National Geographic’s Killing Jesus
or, "It's a Jesus film, only this time...it's franchised". National Geographic have had a good degree of success with Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy, both based on Bill O'Reilly's and Martin Dugard's books of the same name, so you can see why they were tempted to jump back to the first century to film Killing Jesus as well. It's a little unclear when this is going to air, but it too may be an interesting project, not least because it features a Muslim playing the role of Jesus (Haaz Sleiman). It'll also feature Kelsey Grammer as Herod, as well as Stephen Moyer and Bible Films veteran John Rhys-Davies.

Finding Jesus: Faith Fact Forgery (CNN)

Finding Jesus is a six part documentary from CNN examining some of the historical artifacts surrounding the historical Jesus. In contrast to many of the exaggerated claims made for some of these artifacts, the documentary will take a more rational approach, carefully examining the evidence. The six sessions will cover, The Turin Shorud, John the Baptist (including the John the Baptist's finger relic), Judas (including the Gospel of Judas), the secret brother of Jesus (with the James Ossuary), the true cross (fragments of the cross relics) and Mary Magdalene (covering all that Da Vinci Code malarkey). Mark Goodacre is the series' lead consultant and you can find out more on the programme's official website.

Mary
Another Bible films veteran, Ben Kingsley, will also play the role of Herod in Mary, a film with a long, and some would say troubled, past from the pen of Barbara Nicolosi. Nicolosi has been involved since at least 2008, and then the talk was of that being a fifth draft of the script. Since then big names have come and gone (Al Pacino), the title has become more Aramaic sounding and then shortened back to just Mary, but there's still no sign of a website and the release date of April 2015 on the IMDb is looking a little unlikely. Perhaps given the Easter competition, the producers are thinking that the run up to Christmas might be a better time to release the film. Or perhaps this story is going to keep running for a good while yet.

Lumo Project (Big Book Media)
Last year, the Lumo Project released its version of The Gospel of John. According to Lumo's official website the other three are underway, and, according to the IMDb, at least two of those will be released this year (though it says Matthew was released in 2014, so it's perhaps not to reliable on this point). Quite when, where and how many of these projects will be released this year is anyone's guess.

David and Goliath
Having spent a good deal of time in 2014 writing on films about David, I was certainly interested to hear that another was due to be released in 2015. Sadly, and despite the filmmaker's claims of spending a, um, gigantic, $50 million on the project, any sense of anticipation has pretty much trailed away upon seeing this promo. The idea behind this trailer is to try and lever out some much needed funds for promotion. All I'm going to say is that they're going to need to find some people with rather less wisdom than the offspring of this film's eponymous hero.

The Ark (BBC)
Lastly, and not put off by a major film released with similar subject matter being released last year is The Ark from the BBC. It might be promising, actually. A far more accessible and middle of the road portrait than Aronofsky's Noah last yuear, I would imagine, but not necessarily the worse for that. David Threlfall takes the lead role (having played alongside Russell Crowe in Crowe's other big boat thriller Master and Commander) ably supported by Joanne Whalley and Nico Mirallegro. There's a few glimpses of footage on this BBC general preview. Tony Jordan, who wrote 2010's The Nativity for the BBC, has written this one as well, so expect a humanised and sympathetic telling should this ever make it.

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Doubtless there are others I have missed and there are a number of other films gaining publicity at the moment that aren't even due to arrive until 2016, including the adaptation of Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, another version of Ben Hur and Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth based on Reza Aslan's controversial book.

Mary News on Cast and DirectorFoley Returns to (the) Madonna

Foley directing Dustin Hoffman in Confidence, © Lionsgate

The Hollywood Reporter has more details on Mary, Mother of the Christ. Joining Al Pacino (Herod), Camilla Belle (Mary) and Peter O'Toole (Symeon) will be Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado (Joseph) and Julia Ormond. It also names James Foley (pictured above) as director. Foley has a number of well known films behind him including Madonna vehicle Who's That Girl? and the excellent Glengarry Glen Ross. Filming is due to start in October.

Thanks to Peter Chattaway for the tip off. Whilst I'm talking about Mr Chattaway, I should also congratulate him for winning the award for Best Column of 2008 at the Fellowship of Christian Newspapers (North America) - for his film column for BC Christian News.

Mary, Mother of the Christ - Casting

Wednesday's Radio 4 programme God at the Movies proved to be wonderful timing - for Barbara Nicolosi at least. Yesterday's Variety revealed the principal cast and a release date (Easter 2010) for her Mary, Mother of the Christ.

Back in November when Nicolosi talked about a major star being interested in playing Herod, I must confess that I didn't take her that seriously. More fool me. According to Variety, it's Al Pacino.

Aloe Entertainment has put together its New Testament ensemble for Mary, Mother of Christ.

Camilla Belle (10,000 BC) will star as the titular character and will be joined by Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the dual roles of Gabriel and Lucifer and Peter O'Toole as Symeon. Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are in talks to play Herod and Anna the Prophetess.

Mary Aloe is producing along with Dune Films (Hidalgo, Prince of Persia). Argentine helmer Alejandro Agresti (Valentin, The Lake House) is directing the film, which begins lensing in Morocco in May.

MGM plans to release the film wide in 2,000-plus theaters April 2, 2010, which coincides with Good Friday. Media 8 Entertainment will handle international sales and distribution for the film and will introduce the project at the European Film Market in Berlin.

Mike Dolan is exec producing.

The cast is impressive, although as Peter Chattaway puts it "it does not look like ethnic authenticity, of the sort that we saw in The Nativity Story (2006), will be one of this film's top priorities." But O'Toole, Pacino and Lange? (Incidentally Peter also points out that Pacino may also be playing Herod the Great's son, Antipas, in the forthcoming Salomaybe?.

There's more on this at The Hollywood Reporter, Looking Closer, and Nicolosi's Church of the Masses blog. The latest piece there on this film is one denying all connection with the YouTube trailer posted at the National Catholic Register.

Help Nicolosi Write Herod's Dialogue

As I mentioned back in September Barbara Nicolosi has been rewriting Benedict Fitzgerald's screenplay Myriam, Mother of the Christ, renaming it in the process to Mary, Mother of Christ.

The latest news from Nicolosi's blog is that a "major star" has expressed interest in playing King Herod on the proviso that there's "a little beefing up of the role of Herod in the movie". The said star's suggestion was that Herod might "show up at the scene of the slaughter of the innocents, and then make a speech to one of the dead babies".

Anyway, having spent Thursday and Friday attempting to right the scene, she's now decided to ask the readers of her blog if they have any ideas of what Herod might say. So if you do then you can email her your suggestions. I thought it might be fun, though, to post a few suggestions here as well - both the serious ones and some perhaps more humorous ideas.

Mary, Mother of Christ: An Update from Barbara Nicolosi

Back in January 2007, MGM gained the rights to Benedict Fitzgerald's screenplay Myriam, Mother of the Christ. Despite the fact it was lined up for an Easter 2008 release date, there's been almost no news about it at all, save the occasional detail about Fitzgerald's law suit against Mel Gibson.

But yesterday, Barbara Nicolosi, resurfaced to announce that not only had she just handed in the fifth rewrite of the script, but that it had also just changed it's title to the more obvious Mary, Mother of Christ (see IMDB page). Here's what she had to say:

I submitted probably the fifth version of the rewrite today. I think the thing is amazingly better than it was two weeks ago. ("Amazingly better"? Yeah, I have no words left with which to think or express myself.) Hopefully, the producers will agree and I will have a break for a bit.

It was cool to see that the production company has entered a listing for the project here. I can't say a lot about the project yet. I can say it has some wonderfully profound theological moments that hearken back to The Passion of the Christ in style.

I have two or three other projects which could be listed up on IMDB, but for some reason the producers are cagey about doing that. Now, that I'm really up there, I've become obsessed with getting the others up. This is that Hollywood disease, I think. But, as we say in the biz, it is an honor just to have a listing.

Quite. Not really sure what to make of the final line of the second paragraph. Jeffrey Overstreet credits Nicolosi with "talking Mel Gibson into adding flashbacks to The Passion of the Christ" and Fitzgerald obviously wrote that film's screenplay, but at the same time comparing your movie to that film is par for the course of promoting a Bible film these days. And calling parts of your own screenplay "wonderfully profound" seems to rubs me up the wrong way. But then we British are pretty squeamishness about anything other than self-deprecation.

Nevertheless, it's good to hear that this film, at least, is still on track. Thanks to Peter Chattaway (IMDB page) for spotting the story.

Another new Mary Film? Myriam, Mother of the Christ

Peter Chattaway has another scoop. According to the Hollywood Reporter, MGM has gained the rights to a new film about the mother of Jesus. Myriam, Mother of the Christ has been written by Benedict Fitzgerald who also wrote The Passion of the Christ and who will also produce it alongside Richard Garzilli, John Garbett and Erik Lomis.

Peter makes some great observations. Personally, I have a number of questions regarding timing. Firstly, does the timing of this announcement signify that MGM were encouraged by the turnout for The Nativity Story, or that they think New Line botched it? Does planning to show the film at Easter (2008) mean that they have given up hope of Christian related material getting aired at Christmas, and that the more overtly Christian Easter time might be more profitable? Finally, there are now at least three bible films heading for an Easter 2008 release (this, the BBC's as yet unnamed project and The Resurrection). Admittedly one is a British television project, but the other two would rather seem to clash. I wonder if box office clash between films written by the (presumably) Catholic Fitzgerald, and the evangelical La Haye will result in the coalition which resulted in such success for The Passion of the Christ splitting to leave neither film the winner.