{"id":6954,"date":"2013-04-11T21:40:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T04:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=6954"},"modified":"2013-04-11T21:59:57","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T04:59:57","slug":"an-open-letter-to-the-makers-of-the-next-bible-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/04\/an-open-letter-to-the-makers-of-the-next-bible-series.html","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to the makers of the next Bible series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>The Bible<\/a><\/i> was a big hit on cable TV. Now it\u2019s a big hit on video, too, as various sites are reporting that it became the top-selling mini-series ever<\/a> on DVD and Blu-Ray last week, as well as the top-selling TV release of any<\/i> sort on DVD in five years. And that\u2019s not counting the various online distribution methods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ordinarily, success of this sort would guarantee one thing: that other studios and networks would try to replicate the mini-series\u2019 success by producing biblical TV shows and movies of their own. So I\u2019d like to make a plea to any studio or production chiefs who might happen to come across this post.<\/p>\n

Namely: Please don\u2019t just make another movie about Jesus or Moses or even David. We\u2019ve had lots of those already, and we\u2019ve already got more of those in the works. What I would like to see is a filmic representation of some part of the Bible that has never (or almost never) been filmed before.<\/p>\n

The Bible<\/i> itself pointed the way in its third episode<\/a>, when it devoted almost an hour to the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile.<\/p>\n

Like so much else in this mini-series, the storyline here was highly compressed and left out many, many details, some more important than others \u2014 but it is so incredibly rare to see this part of Israelite history dealt with at all<\/i> on film that I didn\u2019t mind. It was a treat just to get a taste of Jeremiah\u2019s prophecies, his eventual exile to Egypt, the capture of Daniel and his friends, the blinding of Zedekiah, and so on.<\/p>\n

Now imagine what a mini-series dedicated to this part of the Bible, or an ongoing series a la<\/i> HBO\u2019s Rome<\/a><\/i> or Game of Thrones<\/i>, could do with this material.<\/p>\n

Wars, famine, political intrigue \u2014 it\u2019s all there. You could show both<\/i> of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s wars against Jerusalem: the one fought against Jehoiakim and his son Jeconiah, and the one fought a decade later against Jehoiakim\u2019s brother Zedekiah. You could show prophets like Daniel and Ezekiel dealing with the exile in their own ways. You could show the first wave of Jewish exiles anticipating and responding to the second, and by far more devastating, military campaign against Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Or, even better, you could devote a series to an important section of the Bible that the recent mini-series never even addressed: namely, the section dealing with the Omrid dynasty (between roughly I Kings 16 and II Kings 10, with some parallel material in II Chronicles 17-22).<\/p>\n

This is the dynasty that gave us King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. And this is the dynasty that had to deal with two of the most significant prophets of the Old Testament: Elijah and Elisha.<\/p>\n