Newsbites: The First Christmas! The Carpenter's Son! The Resurrection of the Christ!
Kevin Costner is hosting a TV special about Mary and Joseph; The Carpenter's Son flops at the box office; and a Resurrection of the Christ cast member attends a Catholic AI conference.
Kevin Costner to host The First Christmas on ABC next month
I somehow missed this when it was announced a couple weeks ago, but better late than never: Kevin Costner is hosting a two-hour special about Mary and Joseph called Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas on the ABC network December 9.
A press release says the special will feature “reenactments of pivotal moments” in Mary and Joseph’s story, “while delving deeper into the emotional significance of the events and diversity of the Christian faith.”
The special is directed by David L. Cunningham, whose credits include To End All Wars (2001), Little House on the Prairie (2005), The Path to 9/11 (2006), and The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007). His father Loren Cunningham founded the international evangelistic ministry Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in 1960.
According to the special’s IMDb page, Mary is being played by Gia Patel, who has only two or three previous credits to her name, and Joseph is being played by Ethan Thorne, who has none.
The cast also includes three actors who already have a bit of Bible-movie experience:
Saif Al-Warith (Angel Gabriel) — Simon in The Red Tent (2014), Shepherd Simeon in Meet the Nativity (2017)
Anthony Barclay (King Herod) — Phaz in Job’s Dinner (2014), Herod Antipas in Jesus: His Life (2019), Josephus the Levantine in Britannia (2019)1
Abdellatif Chaouqi (Asher) — Juian in Jesus Rise to Power (2013), Joseph in The Lumo Project’s gospel films (2014-2016), Adulteress’s Husband in Killing Jesus (2015), Roman Centurion in Jesus: His Life (2019), Workman 1 in Zero A.D. (2026)
The IMDb also says an actor named Alin Wishka is playing “Heli (Josephs Father)”. This is interesting, for a few reasons:
First, the gospels give different genealogies for Joseph, and they identify different men as his father. Luke 3:23 says his father was a man named Heli, yes, but Matthew 1:16 says his father was a man named Jacob.
Christians throughout history have typically agreed that Joseph’s biological father was actually Jacob—and they have offered a variety of theories as to why Luke mentions Heli. For example:
Julius Africanus (2nd or 3rd century) argued that Heli was Joseph’s legal father through the ancient Israelite custom of levirate marriage. That is, Julius Africanus argued that Heli died childless, so Jacob married Heli’s widow and fathered a child in Heli’s name, i.e. a child that would be legally recognized as Heli’s. By this account, Heli was dead before Joseph was born.
St Augustine (4th or 5th century) argued that Heli adopted Joseph. By this account, Heli was alive after Joseph was born.
Others have argued that Heli was actually Mary’s father—so when Luke calls Joseph Heli’s “son”, he really means something like “son-in-law.” This theory—which is based partly on the fact that Matthew’s gospel tells the Nativity story from Joseph’s perspective and Luke’s gospel tells it from Mary’s—was the most popular theory in the community that I grew up in.
I cannot think of any film that has ever depicted Heli before.
Most films that depict Mary’s parents have identified her father as “Joachim”, a name that first comes up in the 2nd-century Protevangelium of James. It is the standard name for Mary’s father in Orthodox, Catholic, and other traditional churches. And it appears that that will be his name in this special, too.
The only other film I can think of that has depicted Joseph’s father—i.e. 2023’s Journey to Bethlehem—called him Jacob, as per Matthew’s gospel.
So if the IMDb is correct, it sounds like this could be the first film that has explicitly depicted Heli at all. My question now is whether it will be the first film that rejects the traditional view that Jacob was Joseph’s biological father, or whether it will allow for the Augustinian theory that Heli adopted Joseph after he was born.
Also interesting: the IMDb says an actor named Sinan Sicimoğlu is playing someone named “Panthera”. Hmmm. I’ve seen films allude to the ancient skeptics’ claim that Jesus was the son of a Roman soldier named Panthera, but I can’t think of any films that have actually cast an actor as this character. (I don’t assume the special will endorse this theory. But it could address the theory by having Mary’s neighbours accuse her of doing something with the soldier when she becomes pregnant.)2
Anyhoo. People magazine spoke to Costner about the special last week:
“It’s a story I think we all think we know,” Costner told PEOPLE on the red carpet of Art of Elysium’s 2025 Heaven Gala at the Rosewood Miramar in Montecito, Calif. on Nov. 11. “I think maybe some of us know a lot, maybe you know just a little, maybe you’re a believer, maybe you’re a cynic or maybe — hopefully — you’re just curious to find out the real story that’s behind the tradition.”
Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas will be broadcast on ABC December 9 at 8pm, and it will start streaming on Hulu and Disney+ the next day.
Here’s a more complete version of the picture above, via ABC:
Side note: How often have films shown Mary riding a horse, rather than a donkey? Netflix’s Mary did that last year—have any other films done that?
The Carpenter’s Son fizzles at the box office
My Monday-morning box-office report didn’t say anything about The Carpenter’s Son because there were no weekend estimates for the film on Sunday. But now the final figures are out, and we have some data—and it isn’t very good:
The Carpenter’s Son landed in 26th place with a mere $96,081 from 549 theatres, for an average of $175 per theatre.
That’s over a three-day period—Friday to Sunday—so the average theatre showing the film sold less than $60 worth of tickets to the film per day.
For comparison, each film in the top ten averaged at least $930 per theatre over the three-day period, and the weekend’s top movie—Now You See Me: Now You Don’t—averaged $6,175.
This film had the 2nd-lowest opening of any Bible movie that I can think of from the past 40 years.
It was ahead of only 2019’s Mary Magdalene, which opened to $46,646 in 62 theatres—but that film averaged $752 per theatre.
And it was only slightly behind 2003’s The Gospel of John, which opened to $98,363 in 14 theatres—for an average of $7,025 per theatre.
So on a per-theatre basis, this film had the worst opening of any recent Bible movie—and by that, I mean any Bible movie that has come out since wide opening weekends and detailed box-office reports became a “thing” roughly half a century ago.
The Resurrection of the Christ actor sighting!
A Catholic News Service story about a recent gathering of Catholic AI developers in Rome included this movie-related detail (emphasis added):
The registration list included representatives from Microsoft, Palantir Technologies and Goldman Sachs, alongside Catholic filmmakers and ministry leaders. Actor and producer Lorenzo Henrie -- who is currently co-financing and starring as an apostle in Mel Gibson’s “The Resurrection of the Christ,” now filming in Italy -- was also listed among those participating.
I’m not familiar with Henrie and had not heard of his involvement in this film before—his name isn’t listed on its IMDb page, for example—so this seemed newsy.
Re: the “co-financing”, it was recently revealed that The Resurrection of the Christ will be one of the most expensive Bible movies ever, with a reported budget of $200 million spread out over two films. Gibson paid for the much cheaper The Passion of the Christ ($30 million) and Apocalypto ($40 million) out of his own pocket, but he said years ago he was getting out of the business of financing his own films, so it’s not surprising he’s got people co-financing this new project, even among the movie’s cast.
One extra thought: Given how Gibson has referred to The Resurrection of the Christ as an “acid trip” that will depict “the fall of the angels”—and given how one of his co-financiers took part in an AI conference—I wonder if he’ll be using any AI in his depiction of that fall, the way House of David did in Season 1.
The Resurrection of the Christ is coming to theatres in two parts on March 26 and May 6, 2027.
Upcoming Bible movies and TV shows:
now-December 7, 2025 — Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints: Season 2 part 1 (streaming: Fox Nation; St Peter episode November 23, 2025)
December 6, 2025 — The Solomon Saga (streaming: YouTube)
December 9, 2025 — Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas (television: ABC; starts streaming on Hulu/Disney+ the next day)
December 19, 2025 — David (theatrical: Angel Studios)
March 22-April 5, 2026 — The Faithful (television: Fox)
April-May 2026 — Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints: Season 2 part 2 (streaming: Fox Nation)
second half of 2026 — The Chosen: Season 6: Episodes 1-6 (streaming: Prime Video)
sometime in 2026 — Zero A.D. (theatrical: Angel Studios)
March 12, 2027 — The Chosen: Season 6: Finale (theatrical: Amazon MGM)
March 26, 2027 — The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One (theatrical: Lionsgate)
May 6, 2027 — The Resurrection of the Christ: Part Two (theatrical: Lionsgate)
March 31, 2028 — The Chosen: Season 7: Premiere (theatrical: Amazon MGM)
no release date specified — Jacob (theatrical: Angel Studios)
no release date specified — Joseph of Egypt (streaming: Prime Video)
no release date specified — The Promised Land: Season 2 (streaming)
who knows when Malick will finish it — The Way of the Wind (theatrical)
Britannia takes place during the Roman occupation of Britain in the AD 40s. The “Josephus” that Barclay plays is a former soldier who took part in the crucifixion of Jesus but has since become a Christian, and is now looking for the spear that pierced Jesus’ side.
Films that allude to the Panthera theory: In The Nativity Story and The Carpenter’s Son, people who doubt Mary’s story ask her if a Roman is the real father. In Jesus of Montreal, the theory is incorporated into a revisionist passion play. And in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Brian’s mother reveals that his father was a Roman.