Yet another Nativity movie in the works.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Three years ago, New Line Cinema produced The Nativity Story. Next month, MGM will begin shooting Mary, Mother of Christ.And now, according to Variety,\" \/>\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\/2009\/04\/yet-another-nativity-movie-in-the-works.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yet another Nativity movie in the works.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Three years ago, New Line Cinema produced The Nativity Story. 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{"id":274,"date":"2009-04-24T09:39:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-24T09:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/04\/yet-another-nativity-movie-in-the-works\/"},"modified":"2009-04-24T09:39:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-24T09:39:00","slug":"yet-another-nativity-movie-in-the-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/04\/yet-another-nativity-movie-in-the-works.html","title":{"rendered":"Yet another Nativity movie in the works."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>
Three years ago, New Line Cinema produced The Nativity Story<\/a><\/i>. Next month, MGM will begin shooting Mary, Mother of Christ<\/a><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now, according to Variety<\/a><\/i>, Fox Searchlight is \u201cfast-tracking\u201d the gospel musical Black Nativity<\/i>, based on the Langston Hughes show<\/a> that has been playing continuously<\/a> in various cities since it premiered on Broadway in 1961; it was, in fact, one of the first plays written by an African-American to open there.<\/p>\n

The studio intends to release the movie as early as this Christmas, which sounds awfully fast, indeed.<\/p>\n

Just for comparison\u2019s sake, MGM doesn\u2019t plan to release Mary, Mother of Christ<\/i> until next April; and the fact that The Nativity Story<\/i> was similarly fast-tracked \u2014 the studio bought the script in January<\/a> and showed the finished movie to journalists in November<\/a> \u2014 was blamed, in hindsight<\/a>, for that film\u2019s disappointing performance at the box office.<\/p>\n

And here it\u2019s almost May, and Fox Searchlight is only planning now<\/i> to make this movie in time for a December release date? Hmmm, well, if they rely to any degree on the casts and crews that have been staging this musical for decades already, then that might help expedite things.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the film will be directed by Kasi Lemmons, an actress whose previous directorial credits include Eve\u2019s Bayou<\/i> (1997), The Caveman\u2019s Valentine<\/i> (2001) and Talk to Me<\/i> (2007).<\/p>\n

Side note: The Wikipedia page for this musical states that \u201cMary\u2019s contractions are echoed through the use of African drums and percussion.\u201d That\u2019s interesting, as I can\u2019t think of any films prior to Franco Zeffirelli\u2019s Jesus of Nazareth<\/a><\/i> (1977) that depicted Mary going into labour \u2014 whether out of general squeamishness and\/or tasteful discretion around that subject, or perhaps out of respect for the ancient tradition that says she didn\u2019t suffer<\/a> any labour pains. But apparently this musical had already gone in that direction a good 16 years earlier.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"