Back in January, when I was talking to “The Bible” producers and spouses Mark Burnett and Roma Downey about “A.D.: The Bible Continues” — click here for that — Burnett dropped a line that, when I was transcribing the interview recently, caught my attention.
So, I emailed him to ask about this:
The great thing would be, for “A.D.,” if it ran several years. It would really be great.
I didn’t get an answer — and that often means that something is in flux. And lo and behold, today, in an interview at Deadline.com, Burnett said this:
DEADLINE: In terms of from the creative process, was there a difference in the way you made The Bible for cable as opposed to how you made A.D. for a main network?
BURNETT: We hired more experienced writers, more experienced actors, some more experienced directors, but the way Roma, and I, and Richard Bedser, who’s the third EP, worked, it’s the same team that did The Bible, did Son Of God, and A.D. Exactly the same approach, except for we, as Roma said earlier, did not fly through decades like we did on The Bible. Because, as you see, by the time you get to the finale of Season 1 of A.D., we’ve only reached Act 10, which is when Peter converts the first gentile, who was the Roman Centurion Cornelius, a member of the Italian regiment who you saw in Episode 1. It is an incredible finale and we’re already in the scripting stage of Season 2 right now.
DEADLINE: Has a Season 2 been officially greenlighted by NBC?
BURNETT: No
DEADLINE: But hope springs eternal?
DOWNEY: Hope springs eternal, and we are already…
DEADLINE: Sounds like more than ready…
DOWNEY: Well, we have been able to bring our writing team back to get the second season blocked out. So we’re very hopeful that the good news can’t be far away.
Click here to read the rest.
Considering that the Church has a 2,000-year-history, one would think NBC could squeak out at least seven seasons from The Greatest Story Ever Told.
After you all get to see episode one, airing Easter Sunday, April 5, we’ll talk about what was missing (which was also missing from “Killing Jesus”).
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