{"id":23552,"date":"2014-10-22T12:15:22","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T19:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=23552"},"modified":"2014-10-22T12:15:22","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T19:15:22","slug":"harry-potter-producer-david-heyman-adds-methuselah-to-his-list-of-unconventional-takes-on-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/10\/harry-potter-producer-david-heyman-adds-methuselah-to-his-list-of-unconventional-takes-on-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter<\/i> producer David Heyman adds Methuselah<\/i> to his list of unconventional takes on the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"vlcsnap-2013-11-14-11h09m54s155\"<\/a>Methuselah, who was recently played by Anthony Hopkins in Darren Aronofsky\u2019s Noah<\/i>, wasn\u2019t the only man in the Bible who lived to be over 900 years old. But he lived at least a few years longer than everyone else, so his name has become synonymous with extreme old age.<\/p>\n

No one ever tells stories about Seth, Enosh, Kenan or Jared<\/a> \u2014 all of whom lived to be over 900 years old as well \u2014 and the fact that Adam and Noah lived to be that old is generally forgotten in films about those characters. It is Methuselah that everyone remembers, simply because he lived longer than any of the rest of them.<\/p>\n

Science-fiction writers have had some fun with this. The Star Trek<\/a><\/i> episode \u2018Requiem for Methuselah<\/a>\u2019 imagined that Methuselah \u2014 or someone very much like him<\/a> \u2014 actually lived for thousands<\/i> of years and assumed such aliases as King Solomon and Alexander the Great. Presumably there are other stories like this as well.<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s another one for the list. Variety<\/a><\/i> reports that David Heyman, producer of Gravity<\/a><\/i> and the Harry Potter<\/a><\/i> movies, is developing a film called Methuselah<\/i>, which is described thusly: \u201cBased on the character from the Bible, the story follows a man who ages slowly and has used his time to develop an incredible set of survival skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have no idea what \u201cbased on the character from the Bible\u201d is supposed to mean here. Is he the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah? Does he die the same year that the Flood happens? Is the story set in the antediluvian world? Or does he simply have the same name as the biblical character, as well as a tendency to live very long?<\/p>\n

Variety<\/i> says Warner Brothers is pursuing this project partly because of \u201call the recent interest around characters from the Bible\u201d \u2014 but if the story doesn\u2019t actually follow the biblical template at all (and the Bible tells us almost nothing about<\/i> Methuselah, except that he lived very long), then I don\u2019t see a lot of cross-over appeal, here.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s another project to keep an eye on, I guess.<\/p>\n

Heyman, incidentally, has been attached to other quasi-biblical films lately, such as adaptations of Reza Aslan\u2019s Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth<\/a><\/i> and Seth Grahame-Smith\u2019s Unholy Night<\/a><\/i>. He is also the son of John Heyman, who served as a producer on Campus Crusade\u2019s much more traditional Jesus<\/a><\/i> movie in 1979.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heyman, who also produced Gravity<\/i>, already has a couple of unconventional New Testament stories on his plate.<\/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":[2394,2597,58,480],"class_list":["post-23552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-david-heyman","tag-john-heyman","tag-methuselah","tag-star-trek-1966"],"yoast_head":"\nHarry Potter producer David Heyman adds Methuselah to his list of unconventional takes on the Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Heyman, who also produced Gravity, already has a couple of unconventional New Testament stories on his plate.\" \/>\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\/10\/harry-potter-producer-david-heyman-adds-methuselah-to-his-list-of-unconventional-takes-on-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harry Potter producer David Heyman adds Methuselah to his list of unconventional takes on the Bible\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Heyman, who also produced Gravity, already has a couple of unconventional New Testament stories on his plate.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2014\/10\/harry-potter-producer-david-heyman-adds-methuselah-to-his-list-of-unconventional-takes-on-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-22T19:15:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2014\/10\/vlcsnap-2013-11-14-11h09m54s155-300x161.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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