Russell Crowe
plays the title
character in
Noah.
A string of
Bible-themed
blockbusters
is bringing
Hollywood and
the Holy Word
together again.
,
Lights! Camera! Action!
I
Debra Kamin
Times of Israel
I
s Hollywood, long an incubator for sex,
thrills and general godlessness, a new
outpost of the Bible Belt?
A look at a handful of the biggest block-
busters on tap this year and next says
maybe.
Major studio films currently in the
works include Noah, a CGI-packed bonan-
za of a blockbuster with Russell Crowe as
the title role and an estimated budget of
$150 million (Emma Watson and Anthony
Hopkins will also get top billing), opening
March 28; and Exodus, a titanic retelling
of the Passover story from Sir Ridley Scott
with none other than Christian Bale split-
ting the Red Sea, scheduled for a Dec. 12
release (Sigourney Weaver and Breaking
Bad's Aaron Paul will also get plenty of
screen time).
Add to that mix Son of God, a feature-
length epic about the Nazareth carpen-
ter, using old and new footage from
the History Channel hit miniseries The
Bible, with Portuguese heartthrob Diogo
Morgado donning the crown of thorns,
opening Feb. 28; Mary (formerly Mary,
Mother of Christ, a prequel to Mel Gibson's
The Passion of the Christ), starring Israeli-
born Jewish American actress Odeya Rush
in the title role and featuring Ben Kingsley
as King Herod and Julia Ormond as Mary's
cousin Elizabeth, slated to open in 2015;
and Resurrection, a Kevin Reynolds-
helmed look at the 40 days following cru-
cifixion, now in pre-production.
A biblical saga called Gods and Kings,
another Moses story, is helmed by Life of
Pi director and Oscar-winner Ang Lee;
the film also is in pre-production (Steven
Spielberg was originally on board as direc-
58
February 27 • 2014
JN
Christian Bale, as Moses, on set
shooting Exodus
Israeli-born Jewish actress Odeya Rush
stars in Mary.
for but dropped out of the project). Will
Smith has been given the green light by
Sony Pictures to make a Cain and Abel film,
with — get this — the not-so-biblically
accurate addition of Canaanite vampires.
In addition, Warner Bros. has taken on a
project focused on the character of Pontius
Pilate, with rumors swirling that Brad Pitt
is attached to the title role.
And on the animated front, Elton John's
movie production company has acquired
the film rights to Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat, and there are plans
to make a feature-length animated musical.
It's a lot of biblical energy from
Tinseltown, which is better known for
worshiping dollars and democracy than
any sort of deity. But to take a line from
Ecclesiastes, everything has a season.
Or as Dan Chyutin, a lecturer on Israeli
cinema who is writing his Ph.D. thesis on
the intersection of religion and Israeli cin-
ema, sees it, everything may have a second
season.
"The last time we really had this sort
of influx of biblical epics was the 1950s,
which is very different from this day
and age, yet you do see some similarities
between then and now and what's going
on in cinema:' Chyutin said.
In 1950s America, he says, 3-D was sud-
denly all the rage, and film studios were
struggling to prove to audiences that they
could provide a true alternative to televi-
sion. So studios thought big — earth and
heavens big — and tapped the Bible to give
them a string of big-dollar biblical sagas.
It all started with 1949's Samson and
Delilah, which was such a runaway success
that it was quickly followed up with a string
of biblical stories, most notably Charlton
Heston's twin boffo epics, 1956's The Ten
Commandments and 1959's Ben Hur.
In the second decade of the 21st century,
with its post-Avatar 3-D obsession and the
unprecedented scope of its AMC, Netflix
and HBO television dramas, the stakes are
suddenly quite similar. And once again,
Chyutin said, Hollywood is setting its
sights on the pockets of the religious right.
"Certainly in the '50s, there was an
attempt by Hollywood to capitalize on the
religious, and, at the same time, [religious
institutions] wanted to capitalize on that
outreach:' he said. "And I think it's a simi-
lar case here. There has been a religious
revival again in the U.S. ... and slowly but
surely Hollywood is recognizing again the
buying power of this audience:'
Justin Chang, chief film critic for enter-
tainment industry mag Variety, was more
hesitant to declare that Hollywood is once
again in a Testament tizzy.
"I wouldn't read too much into this as a
trend — it strikes me as one of those curi-
ous coincidences, no more explicable, really,
than when two different films about Alfred
Hitchcock or Truman Capote come out
within months of each other," Chang said.
He is quick to point out however that
Mel Gibson's 2004 Passion of the Christ
taught Hollywood to quit ignoring faith-
based audiences, and also that the biblical
epics of this decade have little in common
with those Technicolor tales of the 1950s.
"We don't need safer, earnest, didactic,
life-affirming faith-based movies. We need
bold, idiosyncratic filmmakers who are not
afraid to offend or to imprint their own
personal stamp on even the most revered
source material; he said.
"For that reason, I was pretty excited
when I heard that [Jewish director] Darren
Aronofsky would be directing Noah; his
best films, including Black Swan and
Requiem for a Dream, have a go-for-broke
craziness and intensity that I would love to
see applied to a big, epic religio-canvas:'
Regardless of the political leanings of
those who pull Hollywood's strings, Chang
added, good stories make for good movies,
and the Bible offers a wealth of captivating
tales.
"The Bible remains an inexhaustible
source of drama and spectacle, and so it's
no real surprise that Hollywood, which
likes to trumpet its progressive liberalism
but also its ability to bring dreams and
miracles to life, returns to this particular
well every so often:' he said.
"It's worth noting, too, that one needn't
be a true believer to appreciate these
movies — or, for that matter, to make
these movies:'
❑
Son of God is scheduled to open
Friday, Feb. 28. Noah is scheduled to
open Friday, March 28. Exodus has
a planned release date of Dec.12.
Release dates for the other films are
yet to be announced.