30 replies to this topic

[Overstreet]

From Walden Media and the guy who brought you Hidalgo...

The Book of Genesis - in 3D!

Quote

EXCLUSIVE: The world’s oldest story is on a collision course with cutting-edge Hollywood technology. I’m told that Paramount Pictures and former Walden Media co-founder Cary Granat producing with Reel Fx are mounting In The Beginning, a 3D telling of the creation story. The film is using The Book of Genesis as its primary resource. A script has been written by John Fusco (Hidalgo), and directing will be TV vet David Cunningham. This pair had teamed with Granat on a Walden film that never happened, Rebels: The Green Mountain Boys. Reel Fx is spearheading the visuals and will soon turn over test footage the filmmakers hope will prompt a green light. Paramount will co-finance and distribute.

Edited by Overstreet, 08 March 2010 - 05:28 PM.

[Darrel Manson]

I wondered why a shiver ran down my spine.

[Tyler]

At first I thought this could be the David Cunningham who directed To End All Wars, which gave me a little bit of hope, but some searching on IMDB makes it look like it's a different person. To End All Wars lists David L. Cunningham as its director.

Interesting that they list Genesis as "the world's oldest story." It is the oldest in terms of the events it tells, of course, but there are rather a lot of ancient stories that predate the writing of Genesis, if I'm remembering my OT survey class correctly.

[Peter T Chattaway]

It COULD be the same David Cunningham. The guy who made To End All Wars went on to do the remake of Little House on the Prairie and The Path to 9/11, so he's certainly a "TV vet" of some sort. He also has experience working with Walden -- on The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising -- though from what I hear (and based on what ended up on the screen), the experience didn't go very well.

[Persona]

It has the potential to be the bloodiest most vile and incestuous drunken tale of debauchery and salvation and destruction (and salvation again) ever made. I wonder whether they'll go for it or play it safe.

(Duh.)

tyler1984, on 08 March 2010 - 06:06 PM, said:

Interesting that they list Genesis as "the world's oldest story." It is the oldest in terms of the events it tells, of course, but there are rather a lot of ancient stories that predate the writing of Genesis, if I'm remembering my OT survey class correctly.

I believe the oldest book in the Bible is Job. Or is it Jonah? Maybe I'm getting my J's confused...

Edited by Persona, 08 March 2010 - 10:01 PM.

[Ryan H.]

So we're getting a 3-D version of GENESIS? Does that mean we'll be getting 3-D nudity? Of course we won't. Instead, we'll get cringe-inducing tree branches carefully positioned so that all the naughty bits aren't visible. And I bet Eve won't have armpit hair and hairy legs.

Edited by Ryan H., 08 March 2010 - 10:20 PM.

[Andrew]

I could be mistaken, but I think the Epic of Gilgamesh and the earliest Hindu texts predate the book of Genesis...but why let scholarship get in the way of press release hyperbole?

Edited by Andrew, 09 March 2010 - 09:43 PM.

[Tyler]

Andrew, on 08 March 2010 - 10:45 PM, said:

I could be mistaken, but I think the Epic of Gilgamesh and the earliest Hindu texts predate the book of Genesis...but why let scholarship get in the way of populist hyperbole?

I think one current scholarly opinion is that the Noah Flood story is the Judeo-Christian interpretation of the flood in Gilgamesh.

[Andrew]

Tyler - I'm digging into personal ancient history of my college OT course, but akin to what you wrote, I recall the Genesis flood story is a later version than Gilgamesh, of flood narratives found in many traditions.

Edited by Andrew, 09 March 2010 - 09:42 PM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

The Flood story has parallels in Gilgamesh, yeah, but so does the Eden story. If memory serves, Gilgamesh finds a fruit that can grant immortality, but it is stolen from him and eaten by a snake (and this explains why snakes now shed their skin and constantly rejuvenate themselves). So there's an obvious parallel there with the Tree of Life in Eden and the fact that a snake plays SOME sort of role in cutting humankind off from that tree.

BTW, link to our thread on Scott Derrickson's in-development adaptation of Paradise Lost. I wonder if there's room for TWO movies about Creation and the Fall. (Cunningham's movie WILL get as far as the Fall, yes?)

I do wonder how Cunningham's movie could possibly be just about Adam & Eve. There HAS to be more to it than that.

[MattPage]

Thanks Jeffrey, duly blogged.

Matt

[M. Leary]

So creation story or creation to flood story? It seems from the article that this one doesn't make it too far past Genesis 3, which would make the Enuma Elish a better cosmological sparring partner.

I have one request: Make this straight to DVD and include a "conservative" and "liberal" version. The conservative version has intertitles:

Day 1
24 hours later: Day 2
24 hours later: Day 3
24 hours later: Day 4
etc...

The liberal version simply edits out the intertitles.

Edited by M. Leary, 09 March 2010 - 08:45 AM.

[Darrel Manson]

It will certainly be helpful for answering some of those nagging quesitions, like to whom is God speaking when he says, Let us make humankind in our own image?" The movie will no doubt be the definitive answer.

[Tyler]

M. Leary, on 09 March 2010 - 08:44 AM, said:

So creation story or creation to flood story? It seems from the article that this one doesn't make it too far past Genesis 3, which would make the Enuma Elish a better cosmological sparring partner.

I have one request: Make this straight to DVD and include a "conservative" and "liberal" version. The conservative version has intertitles:

Day 1
24 hours later: Day 2
24 hours later: Day 3
24 hours later: Day 4
etc...

The liberal version simply edits out the intertitles.

I've always wondered how time was supposed to be measured the first 3 days, since the sun isn't created until day 4.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Link to our thread on 'genesis movies'.

phlox wrote:
: It’s amazing there hasn’t been an Adam and Eve on film except in Huston’s 1966 “The Bible.”

Well, there was Mike Figgis's The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999). That other thread of ours also lists The Annunciation (d. Andras Jeles, 1984) and Genesis: Creation & The Flood (d. Ermanno Olmi, 1994) as films that tackle the first three chapters of Genesis, though if memory serves, those interpretations were far less literal.

[du Garbandier]

Ryan H., on 08 March 2010 - 10:20 PM, said:

So we're getting a 3-D version of GENESIS? Does that mean we'll be getting 3-D nudity?

Not long ago a friend and I had a great conversation about inappropriate potential uses of 3D. My best contribution was Lolita 3D, but this may not be far behind (so to speak).

Edited by du Garbandier, 09 March 2010 - 02:13 PM.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Oh, and Year One! How could we forget Year One!

[Persona]

Darrel Manson, on 09 March 2010 - 09:57 AM, said:

It will certainly be helpful for answering some of those nagging quesitions, like to whom is God speaking when he says, Let us make humankind in our own image?" The movie will no doubt be the definitive answer.

If the Bible is cohesive, then the NT explains a triune nature of this God, however, I don't think you'll find the word "Trinity" there...

phlox, on 09 March 2010 - 12:35 PM, said:

It’s amazing there hasn’t been an Adam and Eve on film except in Huston’s 1966 “The Bible.”

I did attend a film festival screening of Iván Ávila's version of Adam and Eve, Adán y Eva (Todavía) (2004), but I got a little more than I bargained for there. (Adam and Eve are immortal, having eaten of the fruit they are wandering the earth bored in search of all kinds of various forms of sexual encounter.) It was super -- super lame.

tyler1984, on 09 March 2010 - 01:52 PM, said:

I've always wondered how time was supposed to be measured the first 3 days, since the sun isn't created until day 4.

Isn't there a Bible verse where God says that to him a day is like a thousand years?

du Garbandier, on 09 March 2010 - 02:12 PM, said:

Not long ago a friend and I had a great conversation about inappropriate potential uses of 3D. My best contribution was Lolita 3D, but this may not be far behind (so to speak).

I've never seen these, but I know that there were 3-D versions of Emmanuelle 4: Concealed Fantasy.

Edited by Persona, 09 March 2010 - 04:30 PM.

[Christian]

This thread has a snarky quality to it that would, were I not a savvy A&F veteran but a newbie, cause me to flee the site permanently.

But carry on with the conversation.

Speaking of snarky, here's my contribution. Jeffrey quoted Nikki Finke, who wrote: The film is using The Book of Genesis as its primary resource.

I should hope so.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Christian wrote:
: Speaking of snarky, here's my contribution. Jeffrey quoted Nikki Finke, who wrote: The film is using The Book of Genesis as its primary resource.

Finke didn't write that, Mike Fleming did. (Well, it's always possible that Finke, like certain other editors I can think of, has messed with the story and inserted her own ideas or opinions into the text in some way. But it's Fleming's name in the byline.)