{"id":1980,"date":"2006-10-11T22:25:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-11T22:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/10\/who-is-ezekiel-22-and-why-is-this-their-story\/"},"modified":"2006-10-11T22:25:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-11T22:25:00","slug":"who-is-ezekiel-22-and-why-is-this-their-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/10\/who-is-ezekiel-22-and-why-is-this-their-story.html","title":{"rendered":"Who is Ezekiel 22, and why is this their story?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Reuters<\/a> 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 \u2014 surviving on raw fish and sea birds, and sometimes even drinking their own urine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Silverio Aspericueta, a government official described as \u201cpart of a team of federal, state and municipal officials who led the negotiations on the fishermen\u2019s behalf,\u201d said Ezekiel 22 is now looking for a production partner and negotiating with Warner and Paramount and possibly other movie companies.<\/p>\n

Why would a company with such a religious-sounding name want to tell this, of all stories? The Times of London<\/a><\/i>\u2018s original item on the fishermen offers some clues that other outlets missed:<\/p>\n

Twice, said Se\u00f1or Vida\u00f1a, the men thought their boat was about to sink: \u201cThe waves washed into the boat, and we thought we were going to die.\u201d And once the three went 15 days without food. During the long days the survivors took turns reading the Bible to maintain their spirits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never lost hope because up there there\u2019s God Almighty and I have a lot of faith in Him, and I knew He was going to help us\u2026 We prayed together all the time,\u201d he said. . . .<\/p>\n

Se\u00f1or 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: \u201cThen suddenly we saw ships going by and we\u2019d reached the other side. We were with the Japanese and Chinese,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were born again,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has been a miracle from God because we never lost hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/i>, a nine-day series of prayers to guide their souls to heaven. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So that explains the appeal of the story. But what about the company? Who is<\/i> Ezekiel 22? Googling \u201cezekiel 22\u201d turns up lots of Bible quotes \u2014 no surprise there \u2014 but no obvious page for any Atlanta-based company of that name. Jeffrey Wells<\/a> can\u2019t figure out who they are either, so he riffs on what he has found in the Bible passage<\/a> after which this company was presumably named.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u2014 surviving on raw fish and sea birds, and sometimes even drinking their own urine. Silverio Aspericueta, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWho is Ezekiel 22, and why is this their story?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"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\" \/>\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\/2006\/10\/who-is-ezekiel-22-and-why-is-this-their-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who is Ezekiel 22, and why is this their story?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/10\/who-is-ezekiel-22-and-why-is-this-their-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-10-11T22:25:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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