ABC to reshoot the pilot for Of Kings and Prophets

ABC to reshoot the pilot for Of Kings and Prophets July 6, 2015

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Last month, the ABC network delayed the premiere of its Bible-themed series Of Kings and Prophets, which had originally been scheduled for the fall, so that it could recast some of the supporting roles, such as the king of the Philistines.

At the time, it was not clear how, or whether, these changes to the cast would affect the pilot, which had been shot in April. Would ABC send it back for reshoots, or would they simply move on to the next episode with a slightly different set of actors?

Well, now we have our answer: Deadline says the network has hired a new director to reshoot the pilot in its entirety from a new draft of the script.

The original pilot was directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff from a script by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage (whose credits include the first draft of Exodus: Gods and Kings). The new pilot will be directed by Michael Offer from a script that producer Chris Brancato wrote with Cooper and Collage in collaboration with the show’s other writers.

Bits of the original pilot have already been seen in a trailer that went online in May. It will be interesting to see if the entire episode ever surfaces some day, a la Star Trek’s first pilot ‘The Cage’ or Paul Schrader’s version of the Exorcist prequel.

One thing we do know is that the series will continue to make use of the sets that were built for it in South Africa. Nathaniel Parker — who played David in a 1997 miniseries and was recently hired to play the Philistine king Achish in Of Kings and Prophets — told the Sunday Express, “I’ll be off to South Africa to film it in a few months.”

You can see pictures and videos of those South African sets here, here and here. The series is expected to start airing sometime in “mid-season”, early next year.


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