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Actress Roma Downey and her husband, producer Mark Burnett
'Son of God' and 'The Bible' Series Producers Launch Faith TV Network
CBN News 11-17-2016
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Actress Roma Downey and her husband, producer Mark Burnett, are set to launch a new family and faith TV network.
"Light TV" will start next month on more than a dozen major broadcast networks, including in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
The network was created by Downey's LightWorkers Media and will now partner with MGM films and Fox to provide wholesome family and faith-based films and TV series.
"This is the beginning of our new, multi-platform faith and family network, where the demand is greater than ever for family-friendly entertainment," Downey told Variety Magazine.
"This is the last unclaimed vertical," she said. "As we have already seen from the success of 'The Bible' series and our 20 million social followers, this audience is looking for inspiring and uplifting programming that they can watch in a trusted and safe environment on any platform."
Burnett added that the new network will aim to become the "ideal platform to reach the enormously underserved family audience."
The 24-hour network will feature shows and films from the MGM library, ranging from the Fox game show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader" to the NBC Drama "Highway to Heaven."
Films like "Rocky," "Hoosiers," "Red River," "Little Man Tate," "The Nutcracker," "Lilies of the Field," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," "The Black Stallion," "All Dogs Go to Heaven," "Pink Panther," "Fame" and "Mr. Mom" will also be featured on the network.
LOS ANGELES -- Ben-Hur is often called of the greatest stories ever told. On August 19, Producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey are delivering new twists and turns in their $100 million remake of the film based on the more than 130-year-old Lew Wallace novel.
"I think that one of the most interesting things about Ben-Hur is that you have this fictional story, set at this time in Jerusalem and it gives a real historical and political context to the world in which Jesus was born, a very complicated time," Downey told CBN News.
"(It was) a time of great civil unrest, and in injustice and heartache and hurt for an enormous amount of people and we are following the journey of these two brothers, Judah and Messala and we literally just kind of bump into Jesus in the market place."
Brother Against Brother
The story pits brother against brother. Jack Huston, who originally had intentions of playing the role of Messala, plays Judah Ben-Hur.
"I thought I had a better shot at getting Messala," Huston said. "I think Messala is one of the great characters. But it was a nice segue way into Judah, because it gave me a very deep understanding of my brother and a deep love for my brother."
The brothers, Judah and Messala, battle in a fierce chariot race, where losing could mean dying.
"We shot the chariots for three months of the six months (of film production)," said Toby Kebbell, who plays Mesalla.
Kebbell and Huston didn't use stunt doubles for the scenes even as their horses reached racing speeds of more than 40 miles per hour.
The chariot scenes got so intense Kebbell says he ended up with a chipped tooth.
"A stone hit me in the tooth," he recalled. "It was actually wonderful. I know that sounds repulsive but it was actually a great experience."
Director Timur Bekmambetov guided the horse racing experience, with cameras at every angle. He watched hours of YouTube videos of NASCAR, formula one, and motorcycle races to prepare.
"It was really important to make this world look real and relatable. In today's world we are watching YouTube videos. It is what we know about the world, we are watching YouTube videos," Bekmambetov said.
An Intimidating Project
The chariot race is what most remember from critically acclaimed 1959 version of the film starring Charlton Heston.
The original movie was one of Burnett's favorites. He said producing a new version was quite intimidating.
"When Gary Barber, the chairman of MGM came to us having seen 'The Bible,' 'Son of God,' and 'A.D.' and realized what we brought to those projects, he thought we would be a good addition to his team," Burnett recalled.
"We talked it through," he explained. "We prayed on it and decided that we should take the challenge, because the opportunity may never come along again."
Re-telling this story is an opportunity many cast members hoped would come their way.
"This story is so relevant to today. I mean there has been turmoil throughout history. But right now you are seeing so much negativity and so much hate spewed out in response to hate," Nazanin Boniadi, who plays Esther, said.
"Martin Luther King said it best: Darkness doesn't drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate doesn't drive out hate. Only love can do that," she said. "This film is about love conquering hate."
Studio Asked Him to Direct The New BEN-HUR Film and He Said 'No Way' Without this Change
Director Timur Bekmambetov says he has honored to be asked by MGM to direct the studio's reinterpretation of the classic novel BEN-HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST, filmed for the big screen twice before. But Bekmambetov only took the job after he was certain he could implement his vision for spotlighting a different theme from the 1880 novel than the famous Charlton Heston version of the film did.
"The 1959 movie was about revenge, not about forgiveness," Bekmambetov told the entertainment Web site COLLIDER. "For me that was the main problem; I think that the novel is mainly about forgiveness, about the fact that a human being learned how to forgive."
When Bekmambetov saw the script and talked with producers, including Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the team behind THE BIBLE miniseries, he felt the other filmmakers had the same thoughts about the movie and the same morals about life. What emerged, then, is the epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell), an officer in the Roman army. Stripped of his title, separated from his family and the woman he loves (Nazanin Boniadi), Judah is forced into slavery. After years at sea, Judah returns to his homeland to seek revenge, but an encounter with Jesus (Rodrigo Santoro) leads him to the Crucifixion, where he discovers forgiveness and finds redemption.
That change in heart for Judah fueled by his interaction with Christ, is what gives the new movie it's power and relevance to today's audience, Bekmambetov says.
"Our modern world actually reminds me very much of a huge Roman Empire," he explained to COLLIDER. "In the Roman Empire, the most important important values were pride, rivalry, power, strength, the dictatorship of power and self-love. This kind of world does not have any prospects today.
"Humanity has to learn how to love and forgive."
BEN-HUR opens in theaters everywhere Aug. 19. Share your stories about rising up and overcoming adversity by posting it on twitter, Instagram or tumblr with #MyGreatestVictory http://benhurmovie.tumblr.com. For more information, and to buy group tickets, visit http://www.BenHurMovie.com
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On August 19, modern audiences will encounter a brand-new take on the classic Ben-Hur story most notably captured in the 1959 version starring Charlton Heston. Released by Paramount Pictures, the new film features updated takes on classic scenes such as the chariot race and the gallows ship scene, but also features a stronger evangelistic message and an extended appearance by Jesus Christ (played by Rodrigo Santoro).
Producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the "noisiest Christians in Hollywood," helped bring the new film to life. In this interview, the couple explains how the film was made and why the message of forgiveness is so important to the world right now.
DH: How did you get involved in producing Ben-Hur? How did you first find it?
MB: We were invited to be involved by the chairman of MGM, Gary Barber, who had seen The Bible series and Son of God and really felt that with this story having this through-line of the message of Jesus, it would be very beneficial to the filmmaking process to have Roma and I involved. It was an approach from MGM that actually not only led to doing this movie with MGM and Paramount but also into a much bigger relationship with their companies. It's really amazing.
RD: It was the catalyst for a partnership with MGM that we were just so thrilled with and excited by. So it's been amazing. We came in the early stages of script development on the story working with John Ridley, who wrote 12 Years a Slave, who took the script and we were involved each step of the way. Had a great time over in Italy. The film was shot entirely on location in Matera and in Rome.
DH: In light of what's happening in society, how would you say that moviemaking can be a balm of the pain that society feels and hope for the future?
RD: Certainly in our company, we believe it's more valuable to light one candle than curse the darkness. We try to do that through our work and with our work. The themes that are woven throughout Ben-Hur are themes of reconciliation, of forgiveness, of mercy, of loving, of letting go of bitterness and hatred and anger. Through grace, stepping into a place where we can all get along. I think that we've seen such division rise up in our country and separation and it is our hope in some small ways through our work that we can find the bridges between us. Because we are all children of a loving God and we have to look out for each other.
DH: Can you talk about what all went into making a movie like this?
MB: It's a very large budget movie. You see these big summer blockbusters and part of what causes the enormity of the budgets are the special effects and the experience of 3D that young audiences are expecting. As we mentioned to you guys last night, from a Christian audience perspective, it's very important to make content that would stand on its own whether it was Christian focused or not. It needs to stand on its own and be high quality in order to attract a wide audience. If it happens to also have a message of forgiveness and love and redemption and the story of Jesus woven in right, that's actually the right approach. Because you can't be expecting young secular Americans to be attracted to watch a movie that doesn't have the right trailer and the feeling that it's a big action, summer exciting movie. Remember what you're up against, look at the slate of this summer. People only have so much money to go to so many movies and so you've got to offer something pretty epic. Also, it being Ben-Hur, if you're going to reimagine Ben-Hur, you've got to do it for a new generation. It's the same story but it feels more present for a younger generation.
RD: We had a father and son in the audience last night (at a screening) and the father brought with him emotional memories of the 1959 version but his son has never seen that version, has no preconceived idea of what that might be. We refer to the son as the 'Ben-Who' generation and I think there's such an opportunity for this story to reach our young people and through this action adventure movie, bring them to the story of Jesus, bring them to the foot of the cross. As Judah drops to his knees, you know he's been clutching that rock which he picked up when he gave Jesus the water, he picked it up to hit the Roman. He's still got that in his hands and I love that moment. Because I think of all the places myself in my own life when I've held onto stuff, I've held onto disappointment or I've held onto hurt or I've held onto anger. Yet there's always an opportunity in front of the cross to let that go, to lay that down. I think it's such a powerful moment. I think it's pretty spectacular.
DH:Ben-Hur is really the beginning of your partnership with MGM, right?
MB: Yes, it's turned into a situation where we've actually merged all of our companies so now The Voice and Survivor and The Apprentice and Shark Tank all are now MGM shows as a result of the merger. We wouldn't have merged into MGM had it not been for Gary Barber reaching out to us on Ben-Hur, so we're grateful to have had a chance to work on it and thankful for the overall relationship.
RD: The bigger opportunity (is that) Lightworkers Media, which is our production company, has become the faith and family division of MGM. So it just gives us an opportunity to do more, reach more.
MB: And Roma's launching with MGM a channel, a 24-hour family and faith channel, in the next few months. We're working on a name right now.
DH: A.D. The Bible Continues was just fabulous. Any future plans to continue in that regard?
RD: As we are finally locking this picture and we see the Romans with their red capes, we looked at each other yesterday and said "Maybe we won't do any more donkey and sandals for a while." (laughs) With The Bible, Son of God, A.D., Dovekeepers and now Ben-Hur. They're all great stories and Ben-Hur is such a great story.
MB: I'm looking forward to rereading the version that Carol (Wallace) has written now with updated language. I don't know if you've ever read Ben-Hur but it's hard going. Incredible writer, but it's amazing how it starts with the three Magi. I never knew that from seeing the original movie.
DH: Other companies have tried biblical epics and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. So why is it important for you to partner with the faith community on projects like this and bring them alongside you?
MB: I think we learned from the beginning when we started The Bible, and one of the first things we decided to do was engage several faith consultants. We thought about 5-6. We ended up with about 40 faith consultants across different denominations, Catholic, Protestant, across all different segments of Christianity. That was really valuable what we learned from that. We also were involved with the Jewish community on The Bible. We allowed everyone to air what their ideal scenario would be and when there were things that theologically maybe different, to allow us to find something that felt wasn't offensive to any one group. We've learned through that experience and it's not a theoretical college idea, this is a practical business approach that we fulfilled and we'll keep doing that. Then it went on to Son of God and then A. D. Obviously with Acts, it was a whole new set of questions. And now with Ben-Hur, we've involved the faith community.
RD: Also, with being Christians ourselves, telling the story accurately was important to us. There's a little bit more freedom in this story because it's a fictional story. The story of Ben-Hur is a fiction story, although woven through it are important moments, a life-changing moment for the character when he encounters Jesus Christ. Ultimately through grace, his life is transformed and his life is changed and then through that grace, it alters everyone's life so even toward the end of the movie you see Sheik Ilderim, played by Morgan Freeman, you see a change in his heart, you see the hardness in his heart when he comes lovingly and rescues the mother and the sister. You see the mother and the sister healed through mercy and you see Judah's heart restored and then by extension, Messala. It's a beautiful coming together in the rain, the healing rain as it were, as the blood of Christ is washed into the earth and the whole land is washed clean. That's where the fictional story met a story of faith. But we look at other examples of films of the last few years that didn't honor the story of faith, that didn't tell the story as accurately and the movies ended up not being good and not being supported. Not being accepted.
DH: How does your partnership affect your family? Is it ever hard at the end of the day to go home and just be Mark and Roma?
RD: When you're married to an Irish girl, you have to know when to keep your mouth shut and stand in the back of the room.
RD: We do really well together considering we spend more time together than most people do and we often joke but it's also true, it's a miracle we're still speaking to each other. My girlfriends always say to me 'I couldn't even do yard work with my husband, I'd hit him over the head.' But we do well. We have respect for each other and we love what we do. {eoas}
Dewayne Hamby is a longtime journalist covering faith-based music, entertainment, books, and the retail industry. He is also the editor of the White Wing Messenger, director of communications for the Church of God of Prophecy, and author of the new book Gratitude Adjustment. Connect with him at www.dewaynehamby.com or on twitter - @dewaynehamby.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An epic television series, "A.D. The Bible Continues," will make its debut on NBC this Easter, April 5.
The series follows on the heels of "The Bible" miniseries, which drew more than 100 million viewers to the History Channel in 2013.
The new network television series picks up where the successful cable miniseries ended: at the death and resurrection of Jesus.
'Game of Thrones'-Esque
Executive co-producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett spoke with CBN News about bringing the pages of the Bible to life for today's viewers.
"Clearly, the story of the Bible, and in the case of 'A.D. The Bible Continues,' the story of the Acts of the Apostles, really grabs people emotionally," Burnett said. "But then you have got to make it very well and execute on the promise. And that is our job. I guess we are probably experts in making television."
Burnett undersells his success. He is the engine behind nearly a dozen television hits, including: "Survivor," "The Apprentice," "The Voice," "Shark Tank," and "The Bible" miniseries.
"When we were filming 'The Bible' series in Morocco, we'd wished we'd had more than 10 hours," Downey said, recalling production for the miniseries.
"We'd wished we'd had 100 hours because the stories are so deep and so rich," she added. "And we decided while we were there that we would take a deeper dive into the Book of Acts."
This 12-hour series takes audiences through the first 10 chapters of the Book of Acts and the first decades following the resurrection of Jesus.
It's an epic production Burnett described it as "Game of Thrones meets the Bible."
Describing that biblical period, Burnett said it was "a very tumultuous and bloody time."
"Those apostles and a growing group of disciples could have been killed at any moment," he said. "It was a power struggle between the Romans, the temple authorities, the zealots. In the middle of it was a group of followers of Jesus who were spreading the word. They could have been killed every day."
No Sugar Coating
Following Christ wasn't popular at that time. And the real-life script is now moving from the Bible and history books to today's headlines.
"Here we have with 'A.D.' so much of the story is about the persecution of the early disciples, and it is easy for people to say that happened 2,000 years ago," Downey said. "But it is happening today. And we need to step up and we need to take care of each other."
In addition to shining a light on biblical persecution, Downy and Burnett have started a fund, called the The Cradle Fund, to help rescue, restore, and eventually return thousands of Middle East Christians who have fled their homes to escape persecution at the hands of the ISIS terror group.
"This fund has managed to bring 72,000 Middle Eastern Christians safely through the winter," Burnett told CBN News. "You know there were 500,000 displaced. Imagine escaping being killed, crucified, in fact, but then to freeze to death in the Syrian winter, Iraqi winter."
"Because of the success of our shows, we have a spotlight that lands on us from time to time and we are just a catalyst and God is the author," Downey added. "But as the light is shining here, we thought it is an opportunity to reflect it back and to make some noise for the persecution of Christian overseas."
That noise will continue as this rare and epic television series plays out on the small screen for at least 12 episodes.
"There are lots of big, epic event series on television. But [on the Bible, there is] only 'The Bible' series and now 'A.D. The Bible Continues,'" Burnett noted. "And so, we are hoping this goes on for many years. We are not thinking of this as one year. We are already in anticipation of great ratings, scripting season two."
Producer Mark Burnett predicts that "a billion" people will see his new film "Son of God," which opens in theaters today.
Burnett, who co-produced the film with his wife Roma Downey, told The Wrap in a recent interview that he is confident in the film's long-term success. "This movie is going to be seen by a billion people over the next three or four years, so a big opening would be great, but this is very much a long-term proposition."
Burnett and his wife have visited numerous churches across the U.S. in an effort to sell out movie theaters for screenings ahead of the film's official release on Friday. Their efforts seem to have worked, as influential evangelical leaders including Mark Driscoll, T.D. Jakes and Rick Warren have bought out entire theaters to prescreen the film.
"There's been nothing conventional about this," Burnett, who has produced such successful reality television shows as "Survivor" and "Shark Tank," told TheWrap. "It's more like networking with all these church leaders, who have become our friends, since we've been consulting and working with them on this project for years."
Mark Driscoll's Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Wash., recently gave out 3,500 tickets for the film's pre-screening on Thursday. As the church stated on its website, the purpose of giving away so many free tickets was to encourage nonbelievers to watch the film.
"This isn't just a pass to a free movie; this is an opportunity to bring a friend, a few friends, who would never otherwise hear the story of Jesus. What we don't want are theaters packed with people who attend Mars Hill. We want theaters packed full of people from Mars Hill with their un-churched friends," the church said on its website.
In addition to Driscoll, other major evangelical leaders like Rick Warren have purchased tickets for the movie; Warren reportedly bought out at least eight theaters near his Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., for screenings. T.D. Jakes, Miles McPherson, and Joel Osteen, to name a few, have also purchased tickets ahead of the film's release.
"We're very excited that the community is mobilizing to support Son of God," Burnett and Downey said in a released statement. "The grassroots support is so important and the faith community is amazing when it mobilizes. Our hope is that the story and message of Jesus Christ will reach tens of millions of people nationwide."
The "Son of God" film plays off of footage from the highly successful History Channel miniseries "The Bible." The film follows the life of Jesus from birth to his resurrection.
