{"id":3069,"date":"2012-07-03T23:27:54","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T05:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=3069"},"modified":"2012-07-06T14:41:14","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T20:41:14","slug":"long-gestating-nativity-films-still-slouching-towards-bethlehem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2012\/07\/long-gestating-nativity-films-still-slouching-towards-bethlehem.html","title":{"rendered":"Long-gestating Nativity films still slouching towards Bethlehem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I may have stepped aside from regular blogging for two or three years, but some of the projects I talked about back then are still in development. Case in point: Black Nativity<\/b><\/i>, an adaptation of the 1961 Broadway musical<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When I last mentioned it in April 2009<\/a>, Fox Searchlight was said to be \u201cfast-tracking\u201d the film for release in December of that year \u2014 but I don\u2019t think I heard anything about it again after that, until today.<\/p>\n

Today, Variety<\/a><\/i> reports that Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett and Jennifer Hudson are all in talks to star in the film:<\/p>\n

Story follows a young black teen from Baltimore who is sent by his single mother to Harlem to spend Christmas with the grandparents he\u2019s never met. Through his grandfather\u2019s Christmas Eve sermon and a stylized, dream-sequence retelling of the classic Nativity story, he learns about the importance of faith and family.<\/p>\n

While the young protag has yet to be cast, Jackson and Bassett have been tapped to play his estranged grandparents, Rev. Clarence and Aretha Cobbs. Hudson is making a deal to play the boy\u2019s mother, who hasn\u2019t spoken to her father since they had a falling out after she got pregnant. Jackson will likely play multiple characters during the Nativity sequence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The film is still set to be directed by Kasi Lemmons and distributed by Fox Searchlight, but this latest news story doesn\u2019t give a projected release date \u2014 which is probably wise, at this point.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, this isn\u2019t the only baby- or young-Jesus movie that popped up in the news recently after being in \u201cdevelopment hell\u201d for a few years.<\/p>\n

In May, Variety<\/a><\/i> reported that evangelical mega-pastor Joel Osteen was taking an executive-producer credit on Mary Mother of Christ<\/i><\/b>, a film written by Catholic screenwriters Benedict Fitzgerald and Barbara Nicolosi.<\/p>\n

Alister Grierson, who last directed the James Cameron-produced underwater-cave survival story Sanctum<\/i> (2011), is now slated to direct the film, and Israeli actress Odeya Rush has taken over from Camilla Belle in the title role.<\/p>\n

Three years ago<\/a>, Al Pacino was set to play King Herod, but that is apparently no longer the case. TheWrap.com<\/a>, quoting the film\u2019s press release, reported two months ago that the producers were now negotiating with \u201cone of England\u2019s most famous Academy Award winners\u201d to play that role \u2014 which, assuming that the winner in question won the award for acting<\/i>, would seem to mean that they were negotiating with one of the following British thespians (the movies they won the award for are in brackets; I have also noted which of these winners has played a biblical character onscreen before):<\/p>\n