{"id":737,"date":"2008-07-31T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-31T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/07\/kings-a-little-bit-biblical-a-little-bit-sci-fi\/"},"modified":"2008-07-31T23:59:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-31T23:59:00","slug":"kings-a-little-bit-biblical-a-little-bit-sci-fi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/07\/kings-a-little-bit-biblical-a-little-bit-sci-fi.html","title":{"rendered":"Kings — a little bit biblical, a little bit sci-fi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
A few days late, this post, but better late than never, as they say. One of the many shows that had a panel at last week\u2019s Comic-Con was Kings<\/a><\/i>, the NBC series that modernizes the biblical story of David and his complicated relationship with King Saul.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had always thought that the series would be taking place in \u201cour\u201d world, to the extent that most works of fiction set in the present usually do \u2014 I had vaguely assumed that all the references to \u201csoldiers\u201d and \u201ckingdoms\u201d in the earlier reports were basically metaphorical \u2014 but it turns out the series is a little stranger than that. Liz Shannon Miller<\/a>, writing at Anne Thompson\u2019s blog, reports:<\/p>\n

The pilot sets up an alternate universe where, after a devastating civil war, New York and the surrounding area has become a kingdom led by King Silas (Ian McShane). David (Chris Egan) takes on Goliath-brand tanks. . . .<\/p>\n

Creator Michael Green (\u201cHeroes\u201d) spoke candidly about getting the opportunity to pitch a pilot to NBC: His response was to \u201cgive them the weirdest idea I had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audience questioned both the religious and political overtones of the story. Green denied intending a Biblical context \u2014 \u201cit\u2019s just a hero\u2019s story\u201d \u2014 despite the pilot beginning with King Silas giving a speech full of references to God.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs the fact that it\u2019s a monarchy meant to be omnious?\u201d one audience member asked, admitting, \u201cit made me feel a little uncomfortable.\u201d But the panel refrained from drawing comparisons between the political structure of \u201cKings\u201d and the current American government, preferring to point toward the parallel between the power held by corporate CEOs. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Carmen Andres<\/a> also links to this interview<\/a> that series creator Michael Green did with SciFi.com:<\/p>\n

But Green said the series is not literal in that he plays with the iconic story and that it veers into what he calls \u201csoft sci-fi.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of sci-fi, and I love it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to do this as a space opera. We wanted it to be a familiar world, but at the same time we are inventing a world. We had a lot of fun inventing what this world is going to look like. We are taking New York and impressing our own aesthetic and own iconography. We got to have a lot of fun with that. I remember talking to David Eick about this when he was doing Battlestar<\/a><\/i>, and he said they were always asking themselves the question \u2018What do doorknobs looks like?\u2019 We decided that we wanted to have things look like they could fit in our worlds, but you\u2019re not sure what city it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green said that part of the SF element has to do with the idea of \u201cmagic, faith, happenstance, luck, God.\u201d \u201cI look at it as the hand of faith guiding the heroes,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m curious to see how people perceive that. The ongoing discussions when people see it are \u2018Is that magic? Did something just happen beyond physics? Is it something special or luck?\u2019 I won\u2019t answer that and will let people interpret that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/i>\u2018s Vanessa Juarez passes on the news that pilot director Francis Lawrence and producer Erwin Stoff \u201chad been working on a classic D+G film at Universal\u201d. Is that \u201cD+G\u201d as in \u201cDavid and Goliath\u201d? Are they referring to the script<\/a> that Babylon 5<\/a><\/i> creator J. Michael Straczynski<\/a> wrote about a year and a half ago? What\u2019s the status on that<\/i> project these days?<\/p>\n

Finally, NBC has provided this video of the panel \u2014 and miracle of miracles, I can actually watch it here in Canada:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/widgets.nbc.com\/o\/4727a250e66f9723\/4892c2bb6efd6a76\/488a2b7a07cadad8\/21831e9f
Click here<\/a> if the video file above doesn\u2019t play properly.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days late, this post, but better late than never, as they say. One of the many shows that had a panel at last week\u2019s Comic-Con was Kings, the NBC series that modernizes the biblical story of David and his complicated relationship with King Saul. I had always thought that the series would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nKings -- a little bit biblical, a little bit sci-fi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A few days late, this post, but better late than never, as they say. 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