RC over at Catholic Light posts:
Fox starts division to boost religious movies. They’re starting with Esther, but I’m really looking forward to a cinematic treatment of the book of Judith.
Judith would be pretty cool. Judith really had Holofernes pegged, or should I say tent pegged. There are a lot of Old Testament books that have received little or no cinematic treatment. I would love to see Tobit done. It has a lot of real cool events that would work well visually. Husband killing Demons, Angels disguised as humans, romantic elements, and blindness curing ointments made out of fish livers. Tobit would be great as long as it wasn’t a two-bit production.
I would also love to see a good treatment of Elijah. Elijah just plain rocks, though he wasn’t exactly very ecumenical. There were no working groups for "Jewish and Baal Together." There are really a lot of great scenes from 1st Kings that could be done and the movie would end on a high note with the flaming chariot exit.
Of course with Fox doing these movies I hope they are not too cheesy. A lot of writers could easily mess things up by trying to project modern attitudes onto Biblical figures. That Moses mini-series last year was a perfect example of how badly this can be done.
What Biblical books would you like to see done?
21 comments
Acts of the Apostles! I don’t know how attractive to the mainstream it would be but I’ve always wanted to see the spreading of Christianity on screen. Especially with the martyrs and all.
Ruth. C’mon it’s a great love story especially the scene where she put’s on her “Midnight in Moab” perfume to attract Boaz. And what a great pick up line “I am your servant Ruth. Spread the corner of your cloak over me”
It’s a great story about love, devotion, hard work, and honor that many folks could learn a lesson from. The only problem would be people’s confusion about Orpah verus Oprah.
Well, they’ve essentially been making and remaking the Song of Songs, Nasty Style for most of cinematic history. How about Revelation? That could make for some nifty special effects…
yeah, Revelations would be awesome if done right. One like the Son of Man with a sword for a tongue. Then there is the whole scrolls episode and the cups of wrath.
The Book of Daniel would make a great anime. So would Ezekiel.
And yeah, I’d be in line on day one to see the Book of Tobit, but you just know they’d have a hot-and-heavy scene with Tobias and Sarah just after they drove off the demon, probably with multiple jump-cuts between Raphael defeating Asmodeus and then back to them in bed.
I think good timely one might be 2 Samuel. Particularly given David’s reaction when Nathan showed him the errors of his ways with Uriah and Bathsheba. And hey, all the wars would make for easy action sequences.
But if you’re going for pure cinematography, I’d have to say that Revelation would be tops on the list. Only slightly behind would be Acts – I’d love to watch the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Are you kidding me? the book of Joshua would so rock, imagine all the fight scenes… oooh. And then the angels come and whoop ass!!
The book of Revelations, but only if they let Mel Gibson direct it!
This is more of a video game, but I’d love to see a GTA style bible game.
I remember when our Grade 7 teacher caught some of us reading the story of Susanna…
I’d also like to see Acts made into a movie…see the early days of the Church
The book of Psalms. The plot would make better sense than not a few Hollywood movies.
1&2 Maccabees! Great fighting, great hero (Judas Maccabeus?) and of course praying for the dead soldiers so that they can be released from their sins.
Maccabees is always gruesome enough to maintain viewers. Eleazar, the seven sons in the deep fryer!
While I’d love to see a movie on Revelations, it would probably be made from a Protestant interpretation. As for Maccabees, they would go: “Who?”
The Maccabees without a doubt. Too bad that Charlton Heston, sadly, could no longer play Mattathias. I can just imagine him booming out the line, “Let him who is zealous for the Law follow me!”
Mel Gibson actually has a film about the Maccabees on his ‘to do’ list.
The story of Adam and Eve, the serpent, original sin, the whole nine yards on the beginning and the arrival of sin into Creation – I’d love to watch that. Of course the shrubs and long hair would need to be strategically placed to keep it out of an “R” rating!
No question: I’d love to see the story of Ehud in Judges chapter 3.
But you don’t have to wait to see most of the OT stories in cinematic style… just watch some Veggietales!
Well, this will probably be Protestant, which means no Tobit, or Judith, or Maccabees. They’re “apocryphal” (the deuterocanon), i believe.
You are confusing Judith and Jael (from the Book of Judges). Judith beheaded Holofernes after getting him drunk.