To 'Set the Record Straight'... really?

[WitchSabrina]

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/hol ... d=18610211

Ever since Charlton Heston parted the Red Sea as Moses in the epic 1956 film, "The Ten Commandments," Hollywood has had a thirst for more, and now comes a husband-and-wife team who seek to do the Bible justice in a new, 10-hour series premiering on Sunday, March 3, on the History Channel.

Spanning Genesis to Revelation, the series producers may surprise many: First, the reality TV show guru Mark Burnett -- the man who made Donald Trump a TV star and "you're fired" a household catch-phrase, who changed the television landscape with "Survivor," which just debuted its 27th season, and created the ever-popular "Shark Tank" and "The Voice" -- is now taking on a project truly biblical in scale.

But he couldn't do it alone. Burnett asked for a little help from above: actress Roma Downey, the star of the TV classic, "Touched by an Angel," who is his wife.

"I'm married to an angel," Burnett said.

So why are the guy who created "Shark Tank" and "Survivor," and the woman who played an angel tackling "The Bible"?

"The Bible is the foundation of this nation, of our laws, of our society," Burnett said. "There wouldn't have been the Declaration of Independence. President Obama swore his allegiance to all of us not on one Bible, on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Bible and Abraham Lincoln's bible last month. It's on our money: 'In God We Trust.'"


They launched the project four years ago and say they were acutely aware of needing to make the special effects shine.

"We have three teenagers," Downey said. "One of the things they said to us [was], 'Oh please, whatever you do, don't make the special effects lame.'"

"We showed our kids, at the beginning of this project, a movie we had grown up on, 'Ten Commandments.' They were rolling their eyes," Burnett said. "That movie is beautiful, but it's 50 years old. So really, what we've done for 2013 is brought fresh visual life into the greatest story ever told."

Beyond the special effects, Burnett and Downey said this project was very personal to them. They said their faith is central to their lives and they took the responsibility of telling its stories seriously.

"We believe the Bible," Burnett said. "However, on this project, there's only one way to approach this. You have to take the Bible as a fact."

"We have run into people that have thought, believe it or not, that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife, or that Sodom and Gomorrah lived happily ever after," Downey said. "And [we] thought, if nothing else, just to set the record straight."

Burnett and Downey expect the series to have an enormous impact. They have recruited more than 40 theologians and academics to advise them on all aspects of the series.

How many people may watch?

"I'm telling you, a million will either open the Bible or reopen the Bible ... maybe a billion," Burnett said. "I think, to be honest with you, because I'm a very blunt person, I think a billion is a low number."

Burnett said it cost less than $22 million to produce the entire series, cheap by Hollywood standards, "although the bills are still coming in." Prayers, the couple said, were as important as the cash. Downey said that about four to six weeks before they were starting to shoot the principal photography, they had not yet cast the role of Jesus.

"To say that we were anxious about that would be an understatement," Downey said.

So she said she contacted various prayer circles and churches.

[Farroc]

50$ says they'll either completely skip, or change, the scenes where slavery is promoted, innocent babies are killed, and millions of animals fit into a boat.

[WitchSabrina]

50$ says they'll either completely skip, or change, the scenes where slavery is promoted, innocent babies are killed, and millions of animals fit into a boat.

And the parts where fathers rape their daughters or sell them to slave traders using rape as currency.

[Plu]

This will either be completely unrealistic towards the bible (and considering their statements, I'm hoping movie critics will call them out on it) or the best way to promote atheism ever shown on tv.

[aitm]

This will either be completely unrealistic towards the bible (and considering their statements, I'm hoping movie critics will call them out on it) or the best way to promote atheism ever shown on tv.

Exactly, this could be potentially the greatest bitch slap xianity has ever innocently created. To get billions to read the babble would be a "god-send". Let's hope it gets made and creates enough buzz to get people reading it.

[Farroc]

Yeah. In fact, it wouldn't even be legal for them to make the movie "as fact" because it would be child pornography!

[missingnocchi]

Can't wait to see what they do for Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Leviticus is a code of law mostly intended for priests, Numbers is the demographics of ancient Israel, and Deuteronomy is literally just three long sermons.

[the_antithesis]

The bible is a boring goddamn book.

[the_antithesis]

It has violence and sex in it.

So did my last family reunion.

[Hydra009]

My prediction is that they'll skip or sanitize the horrendous parts.  Trust me, no one's going to make a theatrical version of Joshua, let alone the really horrendous stuff like Leviticus or Psalm 58.  I mean, have these people even read the Bible?!

This project is going to fail.

[Hydra009]

It has violence and sex in it.

So did my last family reunion.

How about incest?   :P

[Zatoichi]

It would be more appropriate to air on Sifi network.

[mnmelt]

That picture is Roma Downey???


Holy Facelift Batman!!!!!!

[ApostateLois]

I want to see Ezekiel 23 animated, particularly verses 19 and 20.

[St Giordano Bruno]

The Bible sums itself up in Proverbs 26:11 "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness." That is the bible IMO "verbal vomit" :vom:
Looks as if he may be another casualty of that list of celebrities name by Cynthia Macfadden such as Martin Scorsese and Mel Gibson who have wrecked their ships of these treacherous shoals.