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.