{"id":45018,"date":"2016-04-26T18:35:03","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T01:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=45018"},"modified":"2016-04-26T18:35:03","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T01:35:03","slug":"the-outfit-behind-silence-and-the-last-couple-of-malick-films-acquires-the-rights-to-mark-millars-american-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/04\/the-outfit-behind-silence-and-the-last-couple-of-malick-films-acquires-the-rights-to-mark-millars-american-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"The outfit behind Silence<\/i> and the last couple of Malick films acquires the rights to Mark Millar’s American Jesus<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"americanjesus-cover-a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Waypoint Entertainment announced today<\/a> that it has acquired the movie rights to two comics written by Mark Millar \u2014 one of which, called American Jesus<\/i>, concerns a 12-year-old boy who realizes that he is the Second Coming of Christ.<\/p>\n

Millar \u2014 who wrote the stories that Wanted<\/a><\/i>, Kick-Ass<\/i>, Kingsman: The Secret Service<\/i> and Captain America: Civil War<\/i> are based on \u2014 has been trying to make a film version of American Jesus<\/i> for some time now. In fact, I first wrote about his efforts to make the film back in 2009<\/a>, and followed it up with another post in 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the latter occasion, Millar talked about how the story\u2019s subject matter made some studio executives so nervous that they made some ridiculous suggestions:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were sniffing around \u2018American Jesus\u2019 and everybody wanted to do it, but they were really nervous about the subject matter,\u201d continued Millar. \u201cAnd genuinely, somebody [said] to me \u2018Is there anyway we can do \u2018American Jesus\u2019, but maybe take Jesus out of it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved that,\u201d laughed Millar. \u201cIt had to be the most brilliantly Hollywood thing I\u2019ve ever heard [because] Jesus is in every scene in that book and its about the second coming. And they were saying \u2018can we make it some kind of analogy of Jesus? Or maybe call him David?\u2019 I was like \u2018No, it\u2019s got to be \u2018American Jesus.\u201d They said \u2018 I just don\u2019t know if anybody would go and see a movie with Jesus in it.\u2019 And I [said] \u2018Well, \u2018The Passion\u2019 made $650 million!\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Millar seems happy with Waypoint, though. Regarding the production company \u2014 which is also behind<\/a> Terrence Malick\u2019s newest films and Martin Scorsese\u2019s upcoming adaptation of Silence<\/i> \u2014 he said: \u201cPeter Gross and I have held \u2018American Jesus\u2019 back for a decade until the right team came along. This really is that team!\u201d<\/p>\n

Note: Millar\u2019s film is not to be confused with the 2013 documentary of this name:<\/p>\n