Beginning early next month, a 10-part docudrama “The Bible” produced by reality TV king Mark Burnett and his wife, will air on History Channel through computer-generated imagery (CGI) and live action.
According to the Huffington Post, Burnett, who is the man behind hit shows like “Survivor,” “The Apprentice” and “The Voice,” considers the scripted 10-hour series to be the “most important” project he has undertaken.
The epic five-week, 10 hour television mini-series retells stories from Genesis to Revelation for two hours each Sunday night, each containing two or three biblical stories. The final episode will air on Easter Sunday and will feature the death and resurrection of Jesus.
According to the New York Times, Burnett, who conceived the project with his wife, actress Roma Downey (“Touched by an Angel”), said he had been inspired after rewatching, for the first time since childhood in 1956, the classic Cecil B. DeMille version of “The Ten Commandments.”
Dubac, whose channel has tackled other religious projects, like “Jesus: The Lost 40 Days” and “The Real Face of Jesus?”, predicts that “The Bible” will have the “biggest audience History has ever had” as it is “the most discussed, debated book in the history of mankind,” according to New York Times.
Rather than approaching the genre as an investigation or mystery as the network has done in the past, “The Bible” is “just the magnitude of the book itself,” she said. “We’re not stepping back to examine anything that could be called a controversy. We are just telling the stories that are in it.”
Adding that much of the stories and its characters are rooted in the book, Burnett told the reporters, “People apply personal meaning to the Bible. Our job is to tell the stories in an emotionally connected way.”
“The Bible” uses the New International Version (NIV), the translation preferred by evangelical Christian leaders, and the New Revised Standard Version, Dubac told the Huffington Post.
Moreover, a committee of theologians, researchers and scholars were consulted on the accuracy of the series.
Burnett called it humbling to portray Scriptures on screen and gratifying to “breathe fresh visual life into incredible stories for a global audience.”
The 50-year-old producer said that mini-series offers rare depth and the chance to create a “legacy” project.
“I could be 80 or 90 and it could still be on television,” he said of “The Bible,” according to Huffington Post.
According to biblical-based Movieguide.org, a message stated repeatedly is “change the world,” and during the production of their Bible series, Burnett and his wife experienced some miracles, which increased their passion for doing the project.
History is owned by A&E Television Networks, which itself is jointly owned by NBC Universal, the Walt Disney Co. and the Hearst Corp.
