Newsbites: Jesus reincarnated in Mexico! Diabetes in Bible times!
Brief notes on two recent Bible-movie-adjacent news items.
Netflix releases first look at their adaptation of American Jesus
The Netflix adaptation of Mark Millar’s American Jesus has a new promotional video and, apparently, a new title. The series, which was called The Chosen One when reports surfaced about a car crash that killed two of its actors three months ago, is now called El Elegido, which is Spanish for… The Chosen One. The official synopsis states:
Jodie, a twelve-year-old boy in Baja California, suddenly discovers he has Jesus-like powers: he can turn water into wine, make the crippled walk, and, perhaps, even raise the dead! As the Evangelical and the Yaquí leaders in town try to get him to use his powers to save mankind, all Jodie wants to do is impress the girl he likes and stand up to his bullies. As Jodie struggles and eventually comes to terms with his destiny, everything gets thrown for a loop when he realizes he discovers the truth around his identity.
Netflix released a video over the weekend in which Millar, introduced by co-stars Tenoch Huerta and Dianna Agron, talks about the story’s transition from comic book to TV series. (Incidentally, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Huerta soon, as he plays the mutant sea-king Namor in the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.)
Bob Odenkirk to co-star in The Making of Jesus Diabetes
Deadline reports that Bob Odenkirk is reuniting with Better Call Saul co-stars Andrew Friedman and Michael Naughton on a film called The Making of Jesus Diabetes:
Heath Cullens (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) will direct the movie, which chronicles the story of two reclusive, middle-aged brothers with no filmmaking experience who are attempting to make a movie about diabetes, during Jesus’ time, to honor their recently deceased mother. All the while, the brothers’ madcap journey is being filmed by their neighbor.
Friedman and Naughton will play the brothers, and Odenkirk will play “a shifty man with a dark past”. The film is based on characters that Friedman and Naughton created several years ago at The Groundlings Theatre. In fact, four years ago they started a YouTube channel in the name of the brothers, Gerry and Seymour Whitaker, and over the next year or so they posted 17 videos, in character, about the brothers’ intention to make a movie about diabetes that is set in the time of Jesus.
I have absolutely no idea what to expect from this film, but just the idea of a film about diabetes set in Bible times intrigues me, as I have often pondered the fact that Bible movies (and other movies set in the ancient world) never really deal with medical, dental, and other conditions that we routinely deal with in the modern world. I mean, just look at that video: both of the brothers are wearing glasses, and how often have you seen a Bible movie in which people were nearsighted or farsighted? (One of the many interesting things about the life-of-Jesus series The Chosen is its decision to depict the apostle Matthew as someone on the autism spectrum.)
Just to clarify: It does not appear that The Making of Jesus Diabetes will be a Bible movie, per se, but it sounds like it will try to mine some humour from the projection of modern medical concerns into a Bible-story setting, and I am curious to see what it does with that premise. In the meantime, feel free to take a look at this post that I wrote six years ago, on movies about the making of Bible movies—movies like 1950’s Sunset Boulevard, 1963’s La Ricotta, 2005’s Mary, and 2016’s Hail, Caesar!.