Judeo-Christianity is all the rage in development right now, and I have been reading a slew of books and scripts that dust off some of the classic stories from both the Old and New Testaments.
And…
Feels like an opportunity’s being missed. There’s a lot of great stories in there, filled with plenty of popcorn moments: action; romance; intrigue; the supernatural… Noah is doing well, the Bible series did great, and that is of course why all these materials are hitting my desk, but I just feel like the whole thing needs a clean, unified overhaul, like a “Marvel Studios” for the Bible.
Because if an engaged core of creatives could get together and meaningfully craft some real updates to these histories, it would be so great. I mean like combine some of the science and archaeological knowledge that we have gained in the last 2000 years, give a true sense of the times, interweave other records from different cultures in there to add some perspective, I think it could just really reinvigorate people about those times, the moral lessons being learned broadened out for our global audience, and honestly just aesthetically gel, via production and casting, the adventures that were going on, to kind of translate out the whole ye-olde English, chapter/verse drudgery that keeps most people these days from picking that famous book up.
But, what’s more likely to happen is just a few more random adaptations, maybe another tale as fantasy far-out as Noah, maybe another that’s all gritty, and for sure a couple attempts at Gladiator: Jerusalem (I’m looking at you, Maccabees Project) And then people will get tired of it and we’ll be back to vampires or something.
then again, miracles happen, right?