{"id":17123,"date":"2014-04-09T10:38:01","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T17:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=17123"},"modified":"2014-04-09T10:38:01","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T17:38:01","slug":"quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html","title":{"rendered":"Quick updates on The Leftovers<\/i> and the Left Behind<\/i> reboot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>The Rapture stories told by Christians tend to fall into one of two camps: they are either intended to scare the reader or viewer into becoming a Christian, so that he or she will qualify for the Rapture and be spared the terrors of life under the Antichrist; or they are intended to give Christians a chance to do some tribal chest-thumping, as the characters who somehow become Christian after<\/i> the Rapture actively do what they can to undermine the Antichrist and his evil regime.<\/p>\n

Rarely do these stories actively try to empathize with the people who are \u201cleft behind\u201d when the Rapture happens. (One of the reasons I love the Daniel Amos song \u2018Lady Goodbye<\/a>\u2019 is because it does<\/i> try to imagine what that experience would be like.) Lately, however, storytellers of a less obviously religious bent have begun to fill that gap.<\/p>\n

Last year, in the apocalyptic comedy This Is the End<\/a><\/i>, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg surprised a number of viewers by treating the Rapture not just as an occasion for horror-movie parodies, celebrity humour and coarse jokes, but by asking \u2014 with just a hint of sincerity \u2014 what a person must do to become \u201cworthy\u201d of heaven, and by recognizing that pride<\/i> in one\u2019s \u201cworthiness\u201d can, itself, make a person \u201cunworthy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now comes the HBO series The Leftovers<\/a><\/i>, based on the novel by Tom Perotta. A teaser for the series was released a few days ago:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tGjWr0K85S8<\/p>\n

I have not read Perotta\u2019s book, so I don\u2019t know if any of this is explained in there, but I am intrigued by the fact that the teaser emphasizes that only two percent of the world\u2019s population disappears \u2014 including at least one baby.<\/p>\n

In Christian stories like the Left Behind<\/a><\/i> books, it is sometimes emphasized that all children under a certain age will be Raptured, no matter what their religious affiliation, because they have not yet reached \u201cthe age of accountability.\u201d So if all<\/i> the world\u2019s children were to vanish, you would expect the children alone to account for far more than two percent of the world\u2019s population. (As of three years ago, people under 14 made up 26.3 percent<\/a> of the world\u2019s population, or over a quarter of it.)<\/p>\n

But if Perrotta\u2019s Rapture is more selective than that, then what is it based on? We see a baby disappear in the teaser, but not the mother \u2014 so was there some other<\/i> relative\u2019s religious affiliation that caused the baby to \u201cqualify\u201d for the Rapture?<\/p>\n

We shall see, I guess, when the series premieres June 15.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for those seeking a more conventional sort of Rapture story, the upcoming Left Behind<\/i> reboot starring Nicolas Cage now has a release date of October 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Producer Paul Lalonde told Variety<\/i> the new film will cover much less story than the original film did \u2014 possibly just \u201cthe first five minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said that a sequel will be greenlit before the reboot comes out, though it might have to do without Cage; only Chad Michael Murray, Cassi Thomson, Nicky Whelan are listed among the actors who have already signed on for it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An upcoming TV series and an upcoming film will look at the Rapture from very different points of view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1397,306,375,372,2101,271,2098,2102,307,278,287,2100,2099],"class_list":["post-17123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-cassi-thomson","tag-chad-michael-murray","tag-daniel-amos","tag-end-times","tag-evan-goldberg","tag-left-behind","tag-leftovers","tag-nicky-whelan","tag-nicolas-cage","tag-paul-lalonde","tag-rapture","tag-seth-rogen","tag-this-is-the-end"],"yoast_head":"\nQuick updates on The Leftovers and the Left Behind reboot<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An upcoming TV series and an upcoming film will look at the Rapture from very different points of view.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Quick updates on The Leftovers and the Left Behind reboot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An upcoming TV series and an upcoming film will look at the Rapture from very different points of view.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-09T17:38:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2014\/04\/leftovers-300x168.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html\",\"name\":\"Quick updates on The Leftovers and the Left Behind reboot\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-09T17:38:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-09T17:38:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"An upcoming TV series and an upcoming film will look at the Rapture from very different points of view.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Quick updates on The Leftovers and the Left Behind reboot\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Quick updates on The Leftovers and the Left Behind reboot","description":"An upcoming TV series and an upcoming film will look at the Rapture from very different points of view.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Quick updates on The Leftovers and the Left Behind reboot","og_description":"An upcoming TV series and an upcoming film will look at the Rapture from very different points of view.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2014-04-09T17:38:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2014\/04\/leftovers-300x168.jpg"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html","name":"Quick updates on The Leftovers and the Left Behind reboot","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-04-09T17:38:01+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-09T17:38:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"An upcoming TV series and an upcoming film will look at the Rapture from very different points of view.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/04\/quick-updates-on-the-leftovers-and-the-left-behind-reboot.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Quick updates on The Leftovers and the Left Behind reboot"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}