Mary News on Cast and DirectorFoley Returns to (the) Madonna

Foley directing Dustin Hoffman in Confidence, © Lionsgate

The Hollywood Reporter has more details on Mary, Mother of the Christ. Joining Al Pacino (Herod), Camilla Belle (Mary) and Peter O'Toole (Symeon) will be Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado (Joseph) and Julia Ormond. It also names James Foley (pictured above) as director. Foley has a number of well known films behind him including Madonna vehicle Who's That Girl? and the excellent Glengarry Glen Ross. Filming is due to start in October.

Thanks to Peter Chattaway for the tip off. Whilst I'm talking about Mr Chattaway, I should also congratulate him for winning the award for Best Column of 2008 at the Fellowship of Christian Newspapers (North America) - for his film column for BC Christian News.

Mary, Mother of the Christ - Casting

Wednesday's Radio 4 programme God at the Movies proved to be wonderful timing - for Barbara Nicolosi at least. Yesterday's Variety revealed the principal cast and a release date (Easter 2010) for her Mary, Mother of the Christ.

Back in November when Nicolosi talked about a major star being interested in playing Herod, I must confess that I didn't take her that seriously. More fool me. According to Variety, it's Al Pacino.

Aloe Entertainment has put together its New Testament ensemble for Mary, Mother of Christ.

Camilla Belle (10,000 BC) will star as the titular character and will be joined by Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the dual roles of Gabriel and Lucifer and Peter O'Toole as Symeon. Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are in talks to play Herod and Anna the Prophetess.

Mary Aloe is producing along with Dune Films (Hidalgo, Prince of Persia). Argentine helmer Alejandro Agresti (Valentin, The Lake House) is directing the film, which begins lensing in Morocco in May.

MGM plans to release the film wide in 2,000-plus theaters April 2, 2010, which coincides with Good Friday. Media 8 Entertainment will handle international sales and distribution for the film and will introduce the project at the European Film Market in Berlin.

Mike Dolan is exec producing.

The cast is impressive, although as Peter Chattaway puts it "it does not look like ethnic authenticity, of the sort that we saw in The Nativity Story (2006), will be one of this film's top priorities." But O'Toole, Pacino and Lange? (Incidentally Peter also points out that Pacino may also be playing Herod the Great's son, Antipas, in the forthcoming Salomaybe?.

There's more on this at The Hollywood Reporter, Looking Closer, and Nicolosi's Church of the Masses blog. The latest piece there on this film is one denying all connection with the YouTube trailer posted at the National Catholic Register.

Help Nicolosi Write Herod's Dialogue

As I mentioned back in September Barbara Nicolosi has been rewriting Benedict Fitzgerald's screenplay Myriam, Mother of the Christ, renaming it in the process to Mary, Mother of Christ.

The latest news from Nicolosi's blog is that a "major star" has expressed interest in playing King Herod on the proviso that there's "a little beefing up of the role of Herod in the movie". The said star's suggestion was that Herod might "show up at the scene of the slaughter of the innocents, and then make a speech to one of the dead babies".

Anyway, having spent Thursday and Friday attempting to right the scene, she's now decided to ask the readers of her blog if they have any ideas of what Herod might say. So if you do then you can email her your suggestions. I thought it might be fun, though, to post a few suggestions here as well - both the serious ones and some perhaps more humorous ideas.

Mary, Mother of Christ: An Update from Barbara Nicolosi

Back in January 2007, MGM gained the rights to Benedict Fitzgerald's screenplay Myriam, Mother of the Christ. Despite the fact it was lined up for an Easter 2008 release date, there's been almost no news about it at all, save the occasional detail about Fitzgerald's law suit against Mel Gibson.

But yesterday, Barbara Nicolosi, resurfaced to announce that not only had she just handed in the fifth rewrite of the script, but that it had also just changed it's title to the more obvious Mary, Mother of Christ (see IMDB page). Here's what she had to say:

I submitted probably the fifth version of the rewrite today. I think the thing is amazingly better than it was two weeks ago. ("Amazingly better"? Yeah, I have no words left with which to think or express myself.) Hopefully, the producers will agree and I will have a break for a bit.

It was cool to see that the production company has entered a listing for the project here. I can't say a lot about the project yet. I can say it has some wonderfully profound theological moments that hearken back to The Passion of the Christ in style.

I have two or three other projects which could be listed up on IMDB, but for some reason the producers are cagey about doing that. Now, that I'm really up there, I've become obsessed with getting the others up. This is that Hollywood disease, I think. But, as we say in the biz, it is an honor just to have a listing.

Quite. Not really sure what to make of the final line of the second paragraph. Jeffrey Overstreet credits Nicolosi with "talking Mel Gibson into adding flashbacks to The Passion of the Christ" and Fitzgerald obviously wrote that film's screenplay, but at the same time comparing your movie to that film is par for the course of promoting a Bible film these days. And calling parts of your own screenplay "wonderfully profound" seems to rubs me up the wrong way. But then we British are pretty squeamishness about anything other than self-deprecation.

Nevertheless, it's good to hear that this film, at least, is still on track. Thanks to Peter Chattaway (IMDB page) for spotting the story.

Another new Mary Film? Myriam, Mother of the Christ

Peter Chattaway has another scoop. According to the Hollywood Reporter, MGM has gained the rights to a new film about the mother of Jesus. Myriam, Mother of the Christ has been written by Benedict Fitzgerald who also wrote The Passion of the Christ and who will also produce it alongside Richard Garzilli, John Garbett and Erik Lomis.

Peter makes some great observations. Personally, I have a number of questions regarding timing. Firstly, does the timing of this announcement signify that MGM were encouraged by the turnout for The Nativity Story, or that they think New Line botched it? Does planning to show the film at Easter (2008) mean that they have given up hope of Christian related material getting aired at Christmas, and that the more overtly Christian Easter time might be more profitable? Finally, there are now at least three bible films heading for an Easter 2008 release (this, the BBC's as yet unnamed project and The Resurrection). Admittedly one is a British television project, but the other two would rather seem to clash. I wonder if box office clash between films written by the (presumably) Catholic Fitzgerald, and the evangelical La Haye will result in the coalition which resulted in such success for The Passion of the Christ splitting to leave neither film the winner.