For some time now, I have been meaning to write something on the new mini-series version of The Ten Commandments, which airs tonight and tomorrow night on ABC. But between the twins and the writing gigs that pay, I’ve been too busy.
I do devote a few paragraphs to it in an upcoming column for ChristianCurrent on all three films that have gone by that name, but it’s pretty brief, and anyway, it hasn’t been published yet.
I will say that I liked the new mini-series more often than not; it’s a reasonably serious and noteworthy adaptation of Exodus, though while I appreciated the way it underscored Moses’ flaws, I also think it gives him more “issues” than are warranted. At any rate, it’s certainly nowhere near as bad as one of Hallmark’s previous Bible-themed TV-movies, Noah’s Ark (1999; my review).
With all that in mind, consider this excerpt from an interview with Hallmark chief Robert Halmi, Sr. in today’s Vancouver Sun:
Halmi is even less likely to shy away from controversy with his next project, and possibly his last before he retires: The Creation.
“It’s in the newspaper every day,” Halmi explained. “It’s a wonderful story. I don’t want to take sides about this is how it happened, or this is how it became. It’s just a great story. And I think it’s a great sci-fi story. I mean, it starts with a big bang and then it introduces all kinds of new life and so forth — Lucifer as a snake and angels and giants. I mean, for a guy who does fantasy and CGI, it’s a perfect story.”
Hmm, I wonder if Halmi will go beyond the Adam-and-Eve family dynamics of Genesis 1-4 and re-do the Noah’s Ark story from Genesis 6-9, as most films, even the half-hour ones, do when covering the Creation. Considering Halmi already touched on the Exodus with In the Beginning (2000) — which I have never seen all the way through, though I believe it covers Genesis 12-50, as well — it wouldn’t be the first time he had repeated himself.
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