Newsbites: The King of Kings! Mel and the monks! The Promised Land! etc.!
The King of Kings gets a theatrical release in South Korea and a Blu-ray/DVD release in North America; Mel Gibson goes on a spiritual retreat before filming The Resurrection of the Christ; and more.
The King of Kings comes to theatres in South Korea…
The King of Kings—the animated life-of-Jesus movie that recently became not only one of the biggest “faith-based” hits of all time but also one of the top-grossing Asian movies in North America—is finally coming to theatres in its native South Korea later this month.
To promote the film, director Jang Seong-ho spoke at a press event in Seoul on Wednesday.
Among other things, he noted that this is the first film he has directed after working in visual effects for a few decades, and he said he based it on the story of Jesus partly for business reasons, i.e. he wanted to make a film with a certain level of technical quality, and to do that he needed a budget of a certain size, and to do that he needed a story that would appeal to an international audience, etc., etc.
As quoted by ChosunBiz:
“. . . We needed a larger budget to enhance the quality with our technology; thus, it naturally led to targeting the North American market. . . .
“I listed works whose copyrights had expired and noticed that Charles Dickens wrote a book called The Life of Our Lord. The United States is a country founded by missionaries, and even non-believers cannot deny that Jesus was a historical figure. As a major historical figure influencing humanity, I thought it would be quite viable in the North American market. Surprisingly, there has never been a theatrical full-length [animated] film with Jesus as the protagonist. I thought that with well-executed production, it could gain significant symbolism.”
Jang also commented on the performances of the actors who helped dub the film in Korean, such as Squid Game star Lee Byung-hun, who plays Charles Dickens:
“Actor Lee Byung-hun is already an incredibly outstanding actor, so there’s no need to mention him. In fact, he is not religious. Nonetheless, he expressed that while working on this project, he became interested in the universal love story and the figure of Jesus, which was fascinating. I found it interesting to observe how he interpreted the character while acting. Ultimately, there was an emotional exchange reminiscent of playful banter, with some tension between him and his son. He managed to find that chemistry well, which I found intriguing.”
And he noted that the film still has more countries to open in:
"I heard from the distributor that 46 countries have already released the film or are in the process. It has been reported that the release has been confirmed in 90 countries by the end of the year. It seems to primarily be released in non-English-speaking countries during the Christmas season. Including countries currently under negotiation, it seems we will release in a total of 120 countries. I was told that if all this happens, it will be an unprecedented record."
The Korea Times also covered the press conference:
Acknowledging that he still sees “much room for improvement,” the director affirmed that he gave the project his all. “What makes me especially proud,” he said, “is when people express their astonishment upon discovering from the credits that the film was made by Koreans.”
The 54-year-old director also reflected on the shift he’s witnessed over the last decade, noting that his foreign colleagues have become increasingly knowledgeable about Korean culture and language.
“There is a marked difference between a decade ago and now,” he said. “Now I really feel that they treat me as a coworker.” . . .
“The creative landscape has leveled. Just as Hollywood makes films about Korea, we are now in an age where we can create stories about any subject without hesitation,” Jang added.
In another story at ChosunBiz, Jang commented on the film’s virtual cinematography:
On the technical aspects of the new challenge, he stated, "We built a virtual production platform together with cinematographer Kim Woo-hyung and operated the camera like actual movie shooting. Through real-time simulation based on Unreal Engine, we were able to achieve cinematic visual beauty."
For more background on the film and its director, see this story that The Korea Herald ran when the film was playing in North America back in April:
The film's premise — an animated portrayal of the life of Jesus Christ — sprung from both the director's personal conviction as a Christian and market savvy. "Jesus Christ is quite literally the superstar," Jang says. "Even people with zero religious background know who he is. His story cuts across cultures in a way few others can." . . .
Despite his Hollywood ambitions, Jang made the fateful decision to secure funding entirely within Korea — a choice that turned the production into a 10-year odyssey. The $25.4 million budget, though modest by Hollywood standards, represented a substantial gamble for a Korean animation. . . .
That decision to turn down US investment, Jang explained, was driven by his determination to maintain creative autonomy. "I could've gotten US money easily, but I would've lost control over the vision and ownership of the work. That was a dealbreaker for me." . . .
Another challenge was the language barrier. Though comfortable in English from years working in Hollywood, Jang wrote the initial script in Korean, then spent two intense weeks with Disney screenwriter Rob Edwards translating and refining every line.
"We basically locked ourselves in a room from dawn till midnight, living off pizza delivery," Jang recalled. "I'd break down what each line needed to convey, and Rob would reshape it into something that clicked with American ears."
The film comes to South Korean theatres July 16.
…and to Blu-ray in North America
Meanwhile, the English version of The King of Kings—which is already streaming on the Angel platform—will be getting a physical-media release next month.
The set will include both Blu-ray and DVD copies of the film, as well as subtitles in French and Spanish and a bonus feature on the making of the film.
The Blu-ray comes out August 26, and you can pre-order it via Amazon, etc. It appears that there may be a DVD-only version of the set at a later date, too.
Mel Gibson visits Eastern Orthodox monastery
Various sites are reporting that Mel Gibson visited an Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos in Greece recently, as part of a “spiritual retreat” of sorts before he starts filming The Resurrection of the Christ in Italy next month.
Back in January, Mel Gibson said on the Joe Rogan podcast that he needed to “spiritually prepare” himself before making the film:
I even have to change my entire life to do it. You can’t go into a project as profound in nature as that without somehow preparing yourself for it. It’s like preparing for a fight, you know. It’s like you have to be fit for the fight, and, yeah, so you have to spiritually prepare yourself for that.
It would seem that this visit was part of his training regimen, as it were.
Here’s a video of Gibson talking to one of the monks about the story in which the apostle Paul stops one of his jailers from taking his own life (Acts 16:16-40):
Gibson has indicated that The Resurrection of the Christ will cover the whole span of biblical history, “from, like, the fall of the angels to the death of the last apostle.” So will this story about Paul also be part of the film? Who knows. We shall see.
The Promised Land reveals its Season 1 episode titles
It has now been one year since the first episode of The Promised Land—a comedy about Moses leading the Israelites—came out on YouTube. Director Mitch Hudson recently sent an e-mail to the show’s fans with a few new details about the rest of Season 1, which was filmed late last year and is currently in post-production:
There are five more episodes this season, and their titles are: ‘Sinai’, ‘Pitfalls’, ‘Offering’, ‘Bones’, and ‘Presence’.
The original episode released last year is simply called ‘Pilot’.
The full season is “about 218 minutes long”.
If that includes the pilot episode, then the average length of each episode will be about 36 minutes. (The pilot episode is 33 minutes.)
The ‘Bones’ episode will apparently have something to do with Exodus 13:19, which describes how the Israelites took the bones of Joseph with them when they left Egypt. (The bones were ultimately buried at Shechem, near modern Nablus in the West Bank, according to Joshua 24:32.)
There is still no word on when or how the series will be released, but if it all goes well, Hudson said he hopes to start shooting Season 2 “very soon”. Stay tuned.
Judas’ Gospel and The Carpenter’s Son to open in Latin America first?
It’s been a while since we last heard any news about Judas’ Gospel or The Carpenter’s Son, two… unconventional… Jesus movies that were filmed last year. So I looked them up on the IMDb to see if they had any release dates yet, and found this:
Judas’ Gospel — coming to Mexico on August 7
The Carpenter’s Son — coming to Argentina on August 14, and to Mexico on October 30
I have no idea how solid this information is. Judas’ Gospel is being distributed in Latin America by Plus Films KFT, but there’s no public info about the film’s release on the company’s website. And I don’t even know who’s distributing The Carpenter’s Son in that region (though the film did get picked up by Magnolia for the US).
Anyway, if these films really are coming out next month, we should be seeing trailers soon (foreign-language or otherwise), yes? And maybe even reviews?
If anyone has any more info about these films, by all means, please let me know.
Incidentally, fun fact: Vincenzo Galluzzo, who plays Jesus in Judas’ Gospel, has only three credits at the IMDb, and they are all in biblical films: he played the apostle Philip in The Last Supper a few months ago, and he will apparently be seen as “The Angel” in Zero A.D. later this year. Apparently he likes this genre, and the genre likes him!