EXCLUSIVE: The world’s oldest story is on a collision course with cutting-edge Hollywood technology. I’m told that Paramount Pictures and former Walden Media co-founder Cary Granat producing with Reel Fx are mounting In The Beginning, a 3D telling of the creation story. The film is using The Book of Genesis as its primary resource. A script has been written by John Fusco (Hidalgo), and directing will be TV vet David Cunningham. This pair had teamed with Granat on a Walden film that never happened, Rebels: The Green Mountain Boys. Reel Fx is spearheading the visuals and will soon turn over test footage the filmmakers hope will prompt a green light. Paramount will co-finance and distribute.
I’m told the $30 million film will use 3-D visuals to transform the oft-told tale into a spectacle that the filmmakers hope will attract family- and faith-based audiences that flocked to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, that first Chronicles of Narnia installment made on Granat’s Walden watch. I hear Granat pitched the film by claiming that the Adam And Eve story has never really been told by a feature film. (At least not since John Huston.) The Genesis tale of creation took a week that began with God creating light, culminating with Adam and Eve on Day Six, and a day of rest on Day Seven. But I can guarantee you this film is going to take more than a week to make. Where’s Cecil B DeMille when Hollywood needs him.
I hear God drives a hard deal for backend points
So are Adam & Eve going to be cast as caucasian, blonde hair, blue eyes? Mixed race? Or better yet (and more true to actual human evolution) African American?
No, there’s no evolution here. This film is science fiction, so they can use any ethnicity they want.
Science fiction requires some semblance of science. I think the genre you’re looking for is “fantasy.”
Actually, it’s only fiction. There is no science involved in creation…
there’s plenty of science in creation actually.
@Vic-“It’s only fiction, there’s no science involved.” … I love you.
@Evolving-They can’t use any ethnicity they want, they have to be white because God only loves WASPs.
Can we pretty please ditch the oh-so popular phrase “African-American”? I happen to be white. Am I “White” or am I an Irish/English/German-American”?
When can we flush this phrase down the toilet?
We can ditch the phrase when the people who are identified by it no longer wish it used. Its up to the african-american community, not you or me, to say who they are.
IMHO the only African-Americans are the first/maybe-second generation American immigrants from Africa. Folks that still have ties to the nations over there, speak the languages etc…
I’m Black. Not from Africa. Don’t know anything about it except what I’ve read in books or have seen on the discovery channel. My ancestors actually come from France and Germany, but if you met me, no one would ever call me a European-American. So no African-American for me either.
I’m for flushing the term. Off-topic, I know, but needed to be said, especially in this town.
No, the phrase is ditched when we refuse to buy into the rhetoric that spawned the phrase. I am a third generation American. None of my kin was involved in the slave trade. While slavery was a colossal fail in terms of humans treating other humans a certain way because a an iron age book of fables said it was legal, it is history rather than current events in this country.
Time to move on folks. You can either be trapped in the past or create your own future.
I’m hispanic but white skinned. I don’t want to be called white any more, so stop doing it, it’s not your place.
Oh wait, it’s the color of my skin – get over it.
When you think about it, wouldn’t it be more correct to say ‘African’ than ‘African-American’? This is Adam and Eve we’re talking about–a decidedly pre-Africans-in-America couple.
No. I prefer the term “Earthlings.” Watch out for me in the night because I might just come to get you in my spaceship.
Which community? Some people with darker skin prefer to be called black. The whole idea of identifying a person’s race only makes sense if it is a key component of what they are doing: like, a description of a fleeing robbery suspect.. it helps if you know he is light skinned, vs, medium or darker complexioned, when you’re searching for him. Otherwise, we ought to forget it and just judge people on the content of their character… hmmm… that sounds kinda catchy!
So you are saying that if I wish to be called an African-American because that label entitles me to some form of…shall we say…social or political or whatever kind of endearment…it does not matter that I am not one?
Point being, and as they’ll tell you across the pond, just because one is black, does not make one “African”. Just because one is brown does not make one “Mexican”. Just because one is yellow does not make one “Chinese”. (Shall we go on? No.)
If someone is African-American or ANY kind of American, GREAT! The annoyance comes from the temporary “sexiness” and/or popularity of the label. I have a friend whose older brother is a famous pro surfer. She is a blond-haired and blue-eyed Barbie doll from SOUTH AFRICA. She’s more “African-American” than most of these so-called “African-Americans”!
Why can’t we just be “Americans”???
Nice PC response, but you are wrong. I will call whomever whatever I please; I have never used the term “African American” and I never will.
I ditched that phrase a lng time ago. If I’m called white I can refer to AA’s as black. Otherwise don’t refer to descriptive terms at all.
Actually, I’m pretty sure Adam and Eve weren’t African-American, since I have a strong suspicion that Eden predates America.
What cast do you think will sell more tix? The poster children from that ridiculous, latest Vanity Fair Cover or the cast from any Tyler Perry film?
Use mo-cap to create digital characters that are amalgamations of humanity’s various races. Would probably be an “exotic” look.
None of those.
To be a 3-D blockbuster, God is going to cast Adam and Eve as….blue smurfs!!
I think it will be a caucasian couple – but at least it means black people can’t be blamed for original sin. lol
Will the Easter Bunny have a cameo?
Let’s hope so.
They weren’t African American numbskull. Just plain African will do. America wasn’t a country back then…
I mean, it’s about a fictional pair of rubes from one of civilization’s many creation myths, I don’t think realism or adherence to actual human evolution is the objective here.
Uhh… Adam and Eve weren’t African-American… there was no America (and technically no “Africa” either)
africa is a continent you idiot, not a country, thats like saying asia didnt exist
AMEN!!!
where else in the world could eden have been but Africa!
Actually the Bible discribes them as being in the middleeast, near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which is in modern day Iran. So I guess that would make Adam and Eve Middle eastern
Actually the middle east nor Africa existed because before the Flood the world was in one peice…Pangaea…the tigris, Euphrates, pishon, and Gihon (which some think) is the Red Sea marked Eden. So it was in the middle of Africa and the Middle East. It’s a matter of plate tectonics.
I prefer to be called Black, even though my skin is brown and I’m from a long line of creole, mulatto, mestizo, african peoples. This is American. I am American.
I think Adam and Eve should look like the mult-racial population such as Rosario Dawson, The Rock, Vin Diesel, Thandi Newton, Wentworth Miller, Maddison Pettis, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Beal, Barak Obama, Raw Dawn Chong, Kristin Kreuk, Adriana Lima. That way everyone is happy cuz they have a little bit of everything. They represent all of us…and show our humanity is what’s important not our skin color because “race” doesn’t exist.
God Bless!
Actually they were middle eastern
So, we evolved from African Americans? LOL! African Americans are Americans who are descendants of the people of Africa. The Bible doesn’t allow for evolution, It says God created man and woman in His image. America didn’t exist when the Bible was written. They probably look like middle-eastern people.
(evolution)…?we are created by God and that is the truth..
Says a book written by… men.
Bill, Bill, Bill…You don’t understand, do you…
Does it really matter?
they have to be caucasian,it was not after noahs three sons that all the other races apeared, noahs sons.Shem,ham and japheth read your bible in Genesis 9,10,11.And ask for revelation..God Bless
So why do they have to be Caucasian? Who says there were Caucasians before the flood? I certainly don’t see anything like that in the bible I read (and I have a LOT of translations)…
PS And what is the purpose in insisting they were Caucasian? Are you willing to be open about your agenda as to why they should be that color?
I’m pretty sure, in keeping with the strictest intentions of the authors (or Author, if you will) of Genesis, that Adam and Eve should appear Semitic if anything (as God’s Chosen people are).
The only race mentioned in the Bible is the Human Race… There were other cultures in the Bible but we are all human. Red and Yellow, Black and White we are precious in his sight… not from the Bible but a Sunday School song but the truth none the less. It is we who make a big deal about race and the difference of our appearance not God. I say Adam and Eve were a nice health tan… but that’s just me.
I would like to think that olive skinned coloration with a tint on the dark side for one should be appropriate, while the other is light enough to allow for a good combination to allow for the rest as the world has so many possibilities. IT is a sad thing to have to avoid what should be attempted to be done. Go to the website of answersingenesis.com should be comforting for you if you will take the time out to look at it. They have done an excellent job of portraying the Book of genesis, and I hope you will be greatly and pleasantly surprised by their efforts. They have a great ministry to the whole world if you care to peek at it.
This is the creation account so evolution has nothing to do with it. And besides, research indicates that the “african-american” race most likely ascended from Ham – one of Noah’s sons.
LOL, the first humans were not African Americans, are you saying that Americans that had ancestors from Africa traveled to Africa to become the first humans?
Geesh the PC times we live in, I think you mean to say that the first humans more than likely were from Africa and had black skin.
or perhaps more accurately African African
What is the one thing that all people of darker skin tone have in common? They all originally came from countries where the sun was so hot, that their skin had to use pigmentation to protect itself from being burned. Eden was paradise on Earth, and I don’t imagine Adam and Eve getting sun burnt running around naked. There was no need for skin pigmentation, as everything was perfect then, the sun was never too hot. So I guess they had to have pale skin.
Really, human evolution. If they are making this film “true to human eveloution” they may as well give up now. That’s completely contrary to the story. First of all African Americans are only dark skinned because they originally migrated into africa and are only a product of their environment there. God created man most likely, but no one can be sure, looking like the people who are from the middle east, also a product of their envirnment. Dark hair, dark skin etc., but they could have even been light skinned and eventually become darker looking over time. And sorry to burst your bubble, but Darwin’s theory (although he had good intetions), was proven wrong since the discovery of DNA.
African Americans didn’t exist in the beginning. Although Africa is the cradle of civilisation, the bible states Adam & Eve lived in the garden of Eden, presumably where they were made as well which would have been according to early Christian fathers and late classical authors in Mongolia or India or Ethiopia. In the past hundred years. since the discovery of ancient civilizations in modern Iraq, scholars have leaned toward the Tigris-Euphrates valley in general, and to the sites of southern Sumer, about 150 miles north of the present head of the Persian Gulf. They wouldn’t have been white, and if you are talking scientifically, would’ve been a group of at least 12 distinctive genetic groups. But the story of Adam & Eve is just a story regardless, so who cares? If there is one American accent in it the whole film will be a farcical propaganda-fuelled parody of Yankee supremacy and ideology. The fact that it was a communist society will likely be glossed over anyhow.
Oy vey.
no not oy vey what are u jewish its good that poeple everywhere will be able to see the first 10 books of the bible in theaters but poeple should not make extra things that are not in the bible stick with the original content that are in the bible so never say oy vey if u have nothing good on here dont say nothin at all
Oy vey all over again.
I’m not Jewish, and I’m Australian, but… oy vey…
Oy vey!
Everyone is spending loads of cash to jump on the post Avatar 3D band wagon. It’s lame & it’s going to fade out in the same gimmicky fashion as before. Until it does fade, the big visual fx films are inevitably going 3D, as it’s just keeping up with the Jones’s.
The effects can be fun for the 1st few minutes, but they really don’t add that much to the experience once you settle in, the glasses are sometimes a hinderance and despite the technology being much improved, it’s not going to be the determining factor when deciding what movie to spend your cash on…talent, story, etc will always trump the gimmick in the long run.
AMEN!!! (seemed appropriate, given the topic…)
Right on, Chris!
Avatar was a good five minute experience. Would have preferred going to Disneyland, sitting in a both and watching it as an FX experience. It was not a movie. It was an example of new technology.
Pass. Hey execs. You know this word? Pass? Use it. This stuff if borrrrrrrrinnnnnnnnnnnnnng.
people said the TV and internet were gimmicks that wouldn’t last too. the immersive experience of avatar and other well done 3d movies are the only reason i and other people go to the movie theater.
True that. Millions of people have gone to see Avatar over and over again, not for the story or the quality of the film/storytelling, but for the tech.
The quality of 3D is bad (diffuse lighting, murkiness, less than sharp) and really didn’t enhance the storytelling. 2D CGI looks more realistic than 3D and its heightened artifice (especially in Avatar). 3D is not about storytelling, but about experiencing.
Once Hollywood comes out with totally immersive videogame type stories on the big screen (BOOM), what happens to storytelling on film? Film is meant to be a 2D experience, about stories and light and shadow and colour. 3D is, indeed, just a gimmick. Lets call it what it is and not pretend that it will be anything but a boy’s toy.
What a great idea. Why has it taken so long for someone to recognize
that this would be a great film. If this is the guy behind Lion Witch
this should be exciting to watch.
It is.
And why has it taken so long? Mel Gibson financed THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST himself for a reason. Be REALLY interested in hearing how what would have to be a big budget epic based on…wait for it…THE BIBLE!!!…will be developed.
“K. Guys, we just…we REALLY need to tone down all this ‘God’ stuff. And has Taylor’s people gotten back to us on the ‘Adam’ offer?”
The very thought of this makes me want to scream… UNLESS it’s presented the complete mythology that it is. No doubt Eve will be emphasized as the seducer and corrupter of all MANkind, and many will laud the film for it’s “strong female lead.”
Now, if it were the folks behind “The Golden Compass,” I could feel optimistic…
You mean if the people making it, believe exactly how you believe, you’ll be excited…Just ’cause you don’t believe in something, doesn’t mean you should call it mythology, or attack it merely for that reason…that makes you sound ignorant.
Oh yeah, and we can use this to get Paris Hilton’s career back on track by casting her as Eve, alongside Vince Vaughn in the role of Adam. Hijinks, hilarity, and creationism… About time someone gives America what they really want in a movie.
John Huston did this in 1966 it was called THE BIBLE he even played Noah.
Yes, Mr. Huston not only directed that overblown movie, he narrated it, played Noah and the Almighty, which meant in key scenes of the Noah story, he was essentially talking to himself.
As to the idea of making Genesis I into a movie, if you actually read an accurate translation from the original Hebrew, the six days of Creation and Adam/Eve stories seem like two completely different authors – and historically probably are.
If I were making this movie, I’d use Genesis I as a pre-title prologue and make the bulk of the film about the first man and first woman discovering their relationships to themselves, each other, their environment and the Deity and focus on the humanity. It would be too easy to succumb to make Hustonize the story and put everyone up on holier than thou pedestals and I hope the filmmakers avoid that trap.
It’s not “the world’s oldest story.”
well if its family oriented– how are the going to show Adam & Eve, if they can’t be nude . In sweatsuits? sounds like a bomb to me.
Good point, since Adam and Eve covering their nudity was a clue to God that they had partaken of the forbidden fruit.
David’s not a TV vet (though he did the ABC 911 movie for Stephen McPherson and a MOW event project Little House). David is a director who cut his teeth traveling the world with his dad (he’s been to over 100 countries). He can shoot anywhere, very much in the vein of a Doug Liman). He’s got some serious chops and can shoot on a shoestring, though those shoestrings aren’t so tattered these days with his WME agency reps taking care of business (It’s not business, it biznasty!)
Should be a great film…hope it is! -Jg.
Absolutely fantastic! Not sure how they’ll do it at that budget, but if they can pull it off well this thing could be huge. Will there be dialogue?
Cary Granat is a true genius, somebody who gets filmmakers and gets content. The fact that a foolish lawyer drove him out of Walden is their ultimate loss. Anyone who was sued by the Weinsteins has a badge of honor that should make them a hero to all of Hollywood.
Awesome idea. They just better stick to the source material. If not, kiss the target audience goodbye, as well as the “Passion of the Christ”-like opening that a good adaptaption would easily command. By the way…Adam and Eve would need to be medium-complexioned quasi-african-americans (say it 3 times fast, lol.)
Great question xtr, we’ll see if they even place the Garden of Eden in Africa as known. The filmmakers should be torn as to how they choose to tell it. Pangea comes to mind also…..
The problem will be that the film will get an R Rating from the MPAA for the most probably implied nudity in the Garden of Eden.
Yikes.
Isn’t “Clash of the Titans” enough mythology?
@ least Houston got Peter O’Toole to play god.
Who will play the mythical character this time?
Clooney?
HAHAHAHA!
Really, people.
Can’t you do anything original?
I was wondering what Granat was up to.
Where does Mel Gibson play into this?
I’m only 19 and go to film school, it was my dream to direct the Adam and Eve story with cgi technology once I grew up. Damn you!!!!!!!!
Awesome, I love science fiction films. Can’t wait to see the scene where the two kangaroos swim from Australia to the Ark. I’ve always wondered how they kept their pouches from filling with water, and who navigated.
Bad idea.
There is a reason why this story has never been told – nothing scares away kids and teens more than the Bible. And a story about creation? When did Sarah Palin become head of Paramount?
Bad idea. Bad idea. Bad idea.
How big a cut of the box-office gross is God getting?
Who’s going to play God? James Cameron?
oh my GOD!
after seeing blue dancing with wolves navi and alice in wonderland i was going to say to expect everything now from the Bible onward that was ever written to be 3D’d for future earnings potential………but I see someone has had this idea also!
why stop at adam and eve? Let’s go full world:
3D really would do justice to the Hopi birth of the earth story or that we’re all a dream of the Buddha and when he awakens we’re gone.
I’m underwhelmed that we have to go backwards for our stories instead of looking forwards – so many science fiction writers who are doing stories that have cutting edge ideas of where society is going and what it will look like and they studio honchos are going to use 3D on a bible story instead of 3D on a science fiction story.
*facepalm* moment.
we’d better get some good full frontal or I’m walking out!
This reminds me of the movie “And God spoke…”