Newsbites: The Carpenter's Son! The Faithful! Solomon! David!
Quick updates on a young-Jesus horror movie, a TV series about the women of Genesis, and more.
Magnolia picks up young-Jesus horror movie The Carpenter’s Son

Deadline reports that Magnolia, the distributor of films like Thelma and RBG, has acquired US rights to The Carpenter’s Son, the horror movie inspired by the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.
The film—which stars Nicolas Cage, FKA twigs, and Noah Jupe as “the Carpenter”, “the Mother”, and “the Boy” (i.e. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus)—is currently aiming for a theatrical release later this year.
I posted some thoughts about this film—and about previous films that have made use of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas—when it was first announced about a year ago.
Fox orders women-of-Genesis series The Faithful

Deadline reports that Carol Mendelsohn, best known for her work as a producer on the CSI franchise, will be producing a six-part series called The Faithful for Fox Entertainment, which will look at five women from the book of Genesis.
The episodes, which will be released over three weeks during the Easter and Passover season next year, will look at (1) Sarah and her slave Hagar, (2) Sarah’s great-niece Rebekah, and (3) Rebekah’s nieces Leah and Rachel.
The pilot was written by Rene Echevarria (Carnival Row), who will also be one of the show’s executive producers and its showrunner as well.
The Chosen veterans star in a short film about Solomon
Two veterans of The Chosen have teamed up for a short film called The Solomon Saga, which the producers hope to turn into an eight-episode series.
Luke Dimyan (The Chosen’s Judas) is playing Solomon, while Erick Avari (The Chosen’s Nicodemus) is playing Solomon’s father David. Chloe Avakian, who has no connection to The Chosen, is playing Avishag, who is given the nickname “Devorah” by Solomon.
Notably, while the short film was developed by a few men (executive producers Brad Lange and Matthew Brooks, co-writer Manuel Freedman), it was directed by a woman, Sylvia Caminer. There have been very few female directors in the biblical genre, but that’s beginning to change (e.g. House of David’s Alexandra La Roche).1
The producers of the film told ChurchLeaders they hope to shoot the series in 2026.
I don’t believe the short film has been released yet, but you can follow the series’ social-media feeds at Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and the like.
Animated David looking for a new distributor
Angel Studios just had one of its biggest hits ever with the animated Jesus movie The King of Kings. Longtime readers of this Substack might recall that Angel was planning to distribute an animated movie about David at one point, too; just over a year ago, they even announced it would be coming to theatres later this year.
That no longer seems to be the case.
The official website for David says Slingshot Productions, the company that is actually making the film, terminated its distribution deal with Angel last October and then filed a lawsuit against Angel in March after mediation failed.
The website also states that Young David, a series of animated shorts that serves as a sort of prologue to the film, is now “being released exclusively by [faith-based kids’ streaming service] Minno”—but the series is still streaming via Angel, too. (It originally came out on both services simultaneously in 2023-2024.)
The movie’s official website says Slingshot hopes to find another distributor for the film once the lawsuit is resolved, whenever that might be.
Upcoming Bible movies and TV shows:
June 8, 2025 — Testament (streaming: Angel Studios)
June 15, 2025 — The Chosen: Last Supper (streaming: Prime Video - US only)
September 5, 2025 — Light of the World (theatrical: Salvation Poem Project)
December 19, 2025 — Zero A.D. (theatrical: Angel Studios)
2025 (no month specified) — The Carpenter’s Son (theatrical: Magnolia)
2025 (no month specified) — The Chosen Adventures (streaming)
2025 (no month specified) — The Promised Land season 1 (streaming)
2025 (no month specified) — R&B (streaming: Netflix)
Spring 2026 — The Faithful (television: Fox)
no release date specified — David (theatrical)
no release date specified — Jacob (theatrical: Angel Studios)
no release date specified — Judas’ Gospel (theatrical…?)
who knows when Malick will finish it — The Way of the Wind (theatrical)
You can find examples going back to the earliest days of cinema—Alice Guy-Blaché directed La vie du Christ aka The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ in 1906, and Catherine Hardwicke directed The Nativity Story in 2006—but they’re still pretty rare.