Who is Ezekiel 22, and why is this their story?

Reuters reports that a mysterious Atlanta-based company called Ezekiel 22 is going to pay at least $3.8 million for the rights to a true story about three Mexican fisherman who drifted for nine months across the Pacific Ocean — surviving on raw fish and sea birds, and sometimes even drinking their own urine.

Silverio Aspericueta, a government official described as “part of a team of federal, state and municipal officials who led the negotiations on the fishermen’s behalf,” said Ezekiel 22 is now looking for a production partner and negotiating with Warner and Paramount and possibly other movie companies.

Why would a company with such a religious-sounding name want to tell this, of all stories? The Times of London‘s original item on the fishermen offers some clues that other outlets missed:

Twice, said Señor Vidaña, the men thought their boat was about to sink: “The waves washed into the boat, and we thought we were going to die.” And once the three went 15 days without food. During the long days the survivors took turns reading the Bible to maintain their spirits.

“We never lost hope because up there there’s God Almighty and I have a lot of faith in Him, and I knew He was going to help us… We prayed together all the time,” he said. . . .

Señor Rendon, also 27, said the men had drifted for weeks through empty seas without seeing another boat, until they happened across the fishing routes used by the tuna vessels of the Marshall Islands: “Then suddenly we saw ships going by and we’d reached the other side. We were with the Japanese and Chinese,” he said.

“We were born again,” he said. “This has been a miracle from God because we never lost hope.”

Relatives of the men said they had scoured the coast near San Blas, just over 400 miles (642km) west of Mexico City, without success and had started mourning their deaths, some performing the novena, a nine-day series of prayers to guide their souls to heaven. . . .

So that explains the appeal of the story. But what about the company? Who is Ezekiel 22? Googling “ezekiel 22” turns up lots of Bible quotes — no surprise there — but no obvious page for any Atlanta-based company of that name. Jeffrey Wells can’t figure out who they are either, so he riffs on what he has found in the Bible passage after which this company was presumably named.