Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett produced the miniseries
The Bible: The Epic Miniseries, resulting in a huge
global audience. The Jesus story from that miniseries was spun off into the
feature film
Son of God, which is premiering on Blu-ray June
3 from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Blu-ray.com staff reviewer
Jeffrey Kauffman interviewed Downey by phone about
The Bible,
Son of God, and an upcoming project that has already created
some buzz.
Pardon the horrible pun, but what was the Genesis of The Bible
miniseries? Was this a project originated by you and Mark Burnett, or was
it pitched to you?
It originated as a whisper in my heart that became a call, that became a
conversation over a cup of tea between a husband and a wife, that
became an agreement between us. We shook hands and never looked
back and we went out and pitched it ourselves. It was bold, at first many
people thought we had lost our minds. We were putting ourselves and our
reputations on the line and our money as well. But of course we know over
a 100 million people showed up in the USA alone to watch it. It's become a
global phenomenon.
Was there always a plan to "extract" the Jesus story from the
miniseries, or did that evolve after the miniseries aired?
While we were in Morocco filming, we had an editor on location with us, and
we could watch every few days the footage that had been temporarily
edited together to give us a sense of what we were doing, you know,
letting us know if additional scenes would need to be picked up, things like
that. As the Jesus narrative began to unfold, and we got to see the
performance of Diogo Morgado, we knew we had something very special,
We decided there and then to shoot additional footage, to throw in some
extra cameras to get big landscape shots to add depth, with the hopes
that we would be able to create a standalone feature film experience.
What do you think telling the story from John's point of view added to
the production?
Well, you know we had to move through time and a space, it was a
challenge we also faced with
The Bible—how do we move the story
forward without having the luxury of revealing everything that happened in
between? For
The Bible series, we used a narrator, it was the only
thing we could do to keep a coherent story moving and to give people
information they needed to move from century to century and location to
location. I think in a feature film a narrator can distance you, you're pulled
out of the immediate, and you're observing rather than experiencing. We
didn't want that for the movie, instead we explored the opportunity of
going in through memory because we had those scenes of John on Patmos.
That allowed us an entry point to come into the story emotionally.
There of course have been many cinematic version of Jesus' story, but I
just recently reviewed another recent Blu-ray release, 1979's The Jesus Film. One of the things that struck me about that version, which is also
part of yours, is how Jesus' story is woven into a greater arc of Biblical
tales, something that of course you had dealt with overtly in The
Bible. Was this approach talked about beforehand or simply offered by
the screenwriters?
We absolutely brought that to the table. It was something that we believe
and we wanted to weave throughout the story. Just last week here in L.A.
Mark and I picked up an award from the ADL [
Note: The Anti-
Defamation League]. It was unprecedented for Christian producers and we
were honored. We had worked with Abe Foxman on the movie, he had
made some suggestions that things were of concern to him and we made
some adjustments to address his concerns. For example we made it very
clear there were no "Christians" or Jews back then, they were all Jews. But
the ADL event speaks to our intention as to what we wanted to do, to
bring people together as best we could. We know there are many
denominations of Christians as well, and we want to be bridge builders.
Was it a deliberate joke to have Jesus walk in water rather
than on it when he first starts recruiting his disciples?
Yes, obviously later we see him walking on water. We weren't confused
about the miracle, but I think that scene shows
Jesus had a sense
of humor. In surprising Peter, he got Peter's attention.
I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the whole Satan controversy from
the miniseries. [Note: Some pundits claimed that the actor
portraying Satan resembled Barack Obama.] What did you think about it
and was that why Satan was missing from Son of God?
Satan was definitely cut because of all that silliness. It played out as a
great distraction. I had thought everyone would be discussing Jesus,
instead we were discussing Satan and I didn't want that to be the legacy
of the film.
What did you want your film to say/do that other films about Jesus
haven't?
I wanted it to be seen as a love story that I believe it to be. God loved us
so much individually, so much that he sends Jesus to us.
What are your favorite Biblically themed movies?
The Robert Powell
Jesus movie is a favorite, I think it was really well
done, but it also came out around the time I was an impressionable
teenager. I suspect the impact something has on you has to do with the
age you are when you see it. I also loved the music of
Jesus Christ
Superstar, and could probably still sing every song from that show to
you.
Can you tell us about any new projects you have in the pipeline? I'm
especially interested in anything you may be able to share about the
recently announced remake of Ben-Hur.
Absolutely, we're working with MGM and Paramount on a new version of
Ben-Hur. It's going to be epic, and in fact it's the kind of movie that
gives epic its meaning. Of course the '59 movie is amazing, but I have
teenagers at home, and when we shared with them we made this deal our
17 year old daughter said "Ben who?" So we want to introduce the story
to a new generation, a story of redemption and forgiveness.
Thanks for your time, Roma.