The Bible Miniseries Coming to Theaters

[The Mad Kiwi]

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the four Jesus episodes of History Channel's Bible miniseries are being edited together into a three-hour film:

History's record-breaking 10-part miniseries The Bible could be headed to movie theaters.

"We're cutting a movie version right now, a three-hour version of Jesus and [we have] many, many offers from theaters globally," executive producer Mark Burnett told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday at NBCUniversal summer press day. Burnett said the movie version will have a big focus on the Resurrection. He is eyeing a fall release.

Burnett also shared that there is a distinct possibility that more stories will be told for The Bible, a passion project for he and wife Roma Downey.

"It's never actually stopped, but I do have scripts in my bag that I just received today for what's next," he told THR.

Should the story continue, the stories would fall "in the same world," Burnett said. "We feel there is a void, and we're filling that void."

The Bible debuted to 13.1 million viewers March 3 and wrapped up Easter Sunday with 11.7 million viewers. Internationally, The Bible beat hockey in Canada; it was tops in Spain, and it had a 37 share in Portugal.

For Burnett, he was confident the mini would be a success, crediting God as a vital force. "It's a God voice," Burnett said. "It's clearly a calling; clearly, we felt it was something we had to do, and too many things happened to explain it any other way. It's a juggernaut, and it's not going to slow down."

The Bible, like History's Hatfields & McCoys, already has proven a valuable asset to the cable network as it looks to bolster its original programming. History used Bible as a lead-in for its first original scripted drama, Vikings, which already has been renewed for a second season.

The Bible is already the fastest-selling DVD for a miniseries ever.

A few things about this intrigue me. First, Burnett says there will be a big emphasis on the Resurrection. Does this mean they filmed more Resurrection scenes that didn't make it into the show? Stuff like Jesus appearing on the road to Emmaus and Him reprising His miracle of the fish to Peter? Second, if they're inserting new footage in, does that mean we'll also get the three scenes we know were filmed but cut (Jesus casting out the demon in the synagogue, Mary Magdalene's introduction, Mary running into Peter after his denial) along with the extended Ascension shown on History but not on Blu-ray?

I noticed that in most of the promotional materials for the series, the image was cropped to 2.35:1, and it actually didn't look bad at all. It made me wonder if this series was shot with both ratios in mind in case something like this would happen. Not only that, but I noticed the "Mary, Did You Know?" music video on the BD has far more cinematic color timing than the actual show, so it may indicative of what we'll see in theaters.

While I greatly enjoyed The Bible miniseries as a whole, it was the four Jesus episodes that really struck me as being the most artistically and dramatically sound. It annoys me that I can't watch them as a continuous film since the Passion episode is on a separate disc from the other three, and you've got all the episode bumpers and credits interrupting things. If this theatrical version makes it to Blu-ray, I'll definitely be buying it.

As for Burnett's comment about possibly filling in the gaps left by the show, I hope he does it. I'd love to see more episodes devoted to Jacob, Joseph, Ruth, Esther, and Elijah. Revelation would be fascinating, as well. Should that ever happen, I'd like to purchase a version that edits both series into one cohesive whole chronologically, simply splitting three hours or so of content per disc and ending with, "The journey continues on disc two," etc. ala The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions.