With popularity of Bible-themed projects showing no signs of subsiding, Fox has put in development Nazareth, an event series written/executive produced by David Franzoni (Gladiator) and executive produced by Bob Cooper. Nazareth is the first project under an overall deal for event series that Fox has signed with Cooper and Tyler Mitchell’s Landscape Entertainment. It follows the formative years of Jesus of Nazareth. There had been a lot of interest recently in Jesus’ so called “lost years,” a lesser known period in his life because there is very little written about him from the age of 13, following a pilgrimage to Jerusalem he took with his parents, to age 30, when he began his ministry and was baptized by John the Baptist. Lifetime in February started development on 
The One, a TV movie from Hatfields & McCoys producer Leslie Greif and writers Frank DeJohn and David Alton Hedges, which is described as a coming-of-age story exploring Jesus’ early life and formative years as he comes to learn he is the Son of God and is destined for greatness. Another project, which was briefly in development at History, took a more unconventional approach to the same period in Jesus’ life, exploring a theory about his origins as an exorcist. Nazareth hails from FX Prods., which produces most of Fox’s event series, and Entertainment One, where Landscape has a first-look deal. Eleven Films’ Jamie Campbell and Joel Wilson executive produce with Franzoni and Cooper. Franzoni was a co-writer and producer on 2000 hit Gladiator, sharing in the film’s best film Oscar win and a writing nomination. Landscape and eOne recently teamed with Dimension Television, the TV arm of The Weinstein Co., on a Death In The Modern Age series.
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Nazareth is the latest biblical longform TV project set up following the blockbuster success of History’s The Bible miniseries and its feature offshoot Son Of God. A Bible sequel is in the works at NBC, National Geographic Channel has mini Killing Jesus coming up and WGN America has greenlighted 10-part event series Ten Commandments.
Recent Comments
Can’t wait to see Jesus’ growing pains. Pass.
Google who would jesus tax
Well, who?
Based on what? There is no record anywhere of Jesus’ “formative years”. Another ‘Noah’ distortion, and complete fiction. But,
this time against The Son of God. These people are really asking
for it.
Complete fiction?
As if the bible is true…
Good one :)
On the contrary, there are many Gospels dealing with pre-teen Jesus. They just didn’t make the cut at the council of Jamnia-where some dudes decided what exactly would be in the bible. There are stories about Jesus making doves out of clay and bringing them to life to fly away. In one story, a kid disrespected boy-Jesus who promptly struck him dead.
A rich field indeed.
It was the Council of Nicea in the 4th Cent. that decided which writings were official Canon. Leftovers were burned, or gathered into the Apocrypha, which is recognized by the Catholic Church.
That’s where you’ll find the story of Jesus’ clay birds, which destroyed the birds made by his chums.
Exactly, everett walker. I think those stories of Jesus’ childhood are in the Gnostic gospels. One of Jesus’ powers in those stories is the ability to kill people with words which he totally does when a kid accidently bumps into him on the street. He causes another child to shrivel up and die – with words. If you think Jesus would never do anything like that, he does the same thing to a fig tree that had no figs when he was hungry in the new testement.
Many years ago PBS ( wnet 13 NY at the time ) had a fascinating story of the lost years….from the time jesus was 12 until he reappears on the scene at 30….they traced local legends along the silk road thru afganistan all the way to India…They conjectured in India jesus spent time learning about Eastern Religions which he brought back and later mixed with elements of Judaism to come up with what eventually became christanity….Who knows if it is true…but it was interesting television and a good story.
There a number of”gospels” out there that didn’t make it into the Bible – many of which cover his formative years. Most are silly, many are stupid and several make Jesus look like the Old Testament God – killing little kids that anger him. Maybe they want to introduce information from them!
There is actually some suggestion of records of Jesus during that time. There’s a person who shows up in records of some Chinese and Indian Buddhist sects, referred to as Yesu or Issa (which is also the name used in Muslim histories, and means travelling prophet) and there are some interesting coincidences – reports that he was referred to as the son of god, or led a religion that was “born miraculously”, as well as several striking parallels between the Christian and Buddhist texts.
It’s not hard evidence, but when dealing with the ancient world, that’s incredibly rare. Jesus is actually extraordinarily well-attested for a historical figure; the historical sources suggesting that there was a person of the right name who lived in the right place, inspired a religious movement and was crucified by the right person are stronger – more contemporary and more willing to challenge the story they attest if it weren’t true, such as those who were enemies of the Christians – than those for Hannibal or Alexander the Great.
The details are a matter of great debate, and that includes this period of his life, but you wouldn’t consider the details of the Punic Wars or Alexander’s reign fictional, just because they’re not completely certain.
Actually, quite a bit has been written about Jesus’ formative years. It’s in the Apocrypha, the body of mostly anonymous ancient writings that didn’t make it into the Bible. There’s a story, for instance, of young Jesus bringing a clay dove to life. There’s another where he resurrects a child who’s killed after falling off a roof and at least two (in the Gospel of Thomas)where he curses another child who subsequently dies. So you see, there’s plenty of material available for this new “Jesus, the Wonder Years” series.
As with so many of these “religious” movies and TV specials they just have to help God along a bit. That Jesus is indeed True Man AND True God with Perfect Knowledge of all things is just beyond them. It is beyond any of us but hopefully we who call ourselves Christian take God’s word for it.
So basically, it is Smallville for Jesus.
Yes…and, like Superman, he can stop bullets. So long as it’s not the stray shot that passes through the already existing holes in the palms.
From which source(s) did they obtain the information needed to make the film?
Great point!!
There’s “very little known about” these years. Actually nothing factual is known about the person, period. Nothing the was written about him when he was alive survives. It’s all just church fairy tales.
Oh, Henry! What fairy tale did you get your “facts” from? Quite obviously an atheist – try the secular documentation covered in Bill O’Reilly’s book, “Killing Jesus” (a well-documented, non-spiritual account of the life of Jesus, the Christ.
That’s right. Bill “Tide goes in so JESUS everybody” is history’s foremost expert on all things Jesus-y.
I’m convinced.
it is historical fact (first hand written records from the Romans, who like the Nazis keep very detailed accounts) that there was a Jesus of Nazareth, who was 1) baptized by John in the river Jordan 2) put to death by them via crucifiction. You can look it up yourself. Also the book of John, was written by the disciple John while he was exiled on the Greek island of Patmos. (he was the only disciple not put to death) It is a first hand account of the life of the man they called Jesus. Again, all of this is historical fact. Now whether he was the son of God, is a question of faith. But your point that it is all “made up fairy tales” is simple inaccurate.
LOL!! That’s fuckin’ funny, dude. And I actually watch O’Reilly. But he’s a bit of a clown.
Actually the idea that “nothing was written” about Jesus in a Historical context while he was alive was an idea that became popular in the 1970’s. The problem with the idea is that it is easily disproved, BUT those that bought the story line feel like they know something that proves how smart they are so we see them today making the claim that there is nothing written about Jesus when he was alive and then they sit back smugly without realizing people are laughing at them and that they might as well be claiming that the earth is flat.
People have dug around trying to find secular records of the Historic Jesus. Josephus- The Jewish Wars, may have mentioned him and/ or his brother, James briefly though one of the references that included, ” HE was the Messiah.” is widely considered a later interjection by monkish scribes. Josephus is said to have had no use at all for the droves of messiahs who were dotting the landscape at the time. There are historic /archeological records that convincingly document the existence of Pilate, possibly John the Baptist and Caiaphas ,priest of the Sanhedrin. Josephus gleefully chronicled Harod’s misdeeds including the killing of his wife and children but makes no mention of the ” Slaughter of the Innocents” making most historians believe that it did not happen or was so small as to escape notice.
Other religious traditions of the period record very similar miracle workers. Mithras was said to have been born in a manger with sheppards in attendance and delivered the last words – “Father,oh Father, Why have you forsaken me?” Appolonius of Tyana, healed the sick, raised and raised the dead. and Simon Bar Kopha had the title “Messiah” for a while having performed the exact same miracles attributed to Jesus. .
No, there were some records from Egypt, not much. But it’s not church fairy tales. We know a little but certainly not enough for a TV series.
What records are you writing about? Please list these.
If that is your logic for analyzing historical data then throw away all of your history books. Most everything we know about ancient history (people and events) was written hundreds of years later. The information that we have about Jesus is actually very immense.
The letter written by Paul to the Corinthians was dated 15 years after the resurrection.
The 2 letters that Peter wrote were dated 60-65 AD during the reign of Nero
Speaking of Nero, even the ancient historian Tacitus wrote about Christians being persecuted during his reign.
Why not mention the Jewish historian Josephus? Who talked about Jesus
Then there were all the early (extrabiblical) church father who wrote about him: Polycarp, Tertullian, Clement of Rome.. just to name a few….
It is a good thing to understand history.
No historical sources from when he was alive ? None except the Romans… Oooooooooops !
Chris Long: No historical sources from when he was alive ? None except the Romans …
Cite, please? What Roman source from when Jesus lived documents his existence? What book is it cited in? Can a copy of it be found on the internet?
I’ve never seen such documentation or any reliable reference to it. If you can provide one, it would be much appreciated.
Actually, Bertrand Russell is a fictitious character. Documents from his purported lifetime exist, and the story they tell, of a heroic conscientious objector, brilliant mathematician and free love champion are clearly an amalgamation of hero myths.
This is both false and wildly misleading.
First, we do have good sources for Jesus. Josephus, Tacitus and Pliny are the main outside sources, all of which are considered credible by historians. A great many others (Suetonius, for example, who was generally unconcerned with the Provinces) exist attesting to the existence and history of the man. Further, the Pauline epistles and the sources of the Gospel of Mark were written within living memory of Jesus’ death.
Second, you’re wrong in claiming that primary sources are necessary. If you only accept evidence from the time of a historical figure’s life, then Hannibal didn’t exist and the only thing we know about Alexander the Great is that he was on some coin, because there are no primary sources for Hannibal and only a few tiny archaeological scraps for Alexander. That’s not how we study ancient history. Even if you deny the sources of Mark and the Pauline epistles, the first of which were written less than a decade after the death of Jesus (also historically very well-attested, most notably by Tacitus), there are significant bodies of evidence. Lucian, who mocked Christians as credulous and stupid, never doubted the existence of Jesus; and he was writing around 200, whereas our first surviving source for Alexander is at least 300 years after his death…
The historical consensus is that there was a man, he inspired a religion, he followed John the Baptist and he was crucified by Pilate. Details beyond that are obviously the subject of debate and skepticism, but you misrepresent both the facts and the standard of evidence required here.
Sources? Fox? I’m sure it was the RNC, or maybe Americans for Prosperity.
You seem to lack an understanding of Fox Broadcasting Network which is doing this project and the Fox News Channel which has nothing to do with it. Idiot you are and most likely always will be
They aren’t connected? I thought Rupert ruled them all – no?
From the News Corp website:
“News Corporation purchased Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in 1985… The following year, the Company created the Fox Television Stations group, which comprises 28 stations across the U.S. and was the foundation for the launch of FOX Broadcasting Company and FOX Sports.
FOX has been the leading television network in the U.S. for a record eight consecutive years. In October 1996, News Corporation launched the FOX News Channel — the undisputed leader in 24-hour news service. The Company has also successfully established some of the U.S. and the world’s most popular cable networks, including Fox Sports Network, FX and the National Geographic Channels.”
They clearly have to guess and make things up. Given that Jesus didn’t speak of it until He was ready, there was no reason for any scribes to write of his day to day life.
There are some spurious sources that contain stories about Jesus’ early years. If you have ever read any of them, you can see why they were never included in the authoritative canon. As you can imagine, there were people that were interested in Jesus’ early years, and they created all sorts of strange stories about Jesus.
Its Fox. They are using the comic book version
just like they did for Cosmos
I passed on the new Cosmos. They think special effects makes it better — it doesn’t. Plus they could only have had minority host — no whites allowed this time around…
I agree on the special effects, but who would you suggest they should have for a host rather than Tyson? Seems to me he was a natural pick. What makes you think he was chosen for his skin color?
Fox Broadcasting Network: You must be a Dummy who doesn’t know the difference between the Fox Network and the Fox News Cable Channel
I hope it’s an adaptation of Christopher Moore’s “Lamb”
None if there is any or very little. I am interested in seeing what they come up with tho.
Aw, I wanted to see the History Channel version. Jesus Christ: Boy Exorcist.
Actually the History Channel version of the show is called: Jesus Christ – Ancient Alien with a PawnShop.
What about Gater fishing with Troy and Swamp People? Oh yeah, Paul was the fisherman right?
Tom Odenbob: Actually the History Channel version of the show is called: Jesus Christ – Ancient Alien with a PawnShop.
I thought it was called Jesus Christ: Pawn Again Christian.
Although there was that special, Alien Christians: Was Jesus From Outer Space?. I especially like the theory from that one that the Virgin Birth was really Alien Insemination.
I can hear the studio notes already: “Do we buy that Mary is really a virgin? Bad pitch, but what if we make her this witty, acerbic blogger who has a one night stand? Let’s give her a strong, modern POV. Something fresh and edgy!”
What is more likely…
That a supernatural sky being came down through the ether and impregnated a virgin? or…
That a teenage girl lied about ever having had sex?
oh, wonderful………… people already know enough about the life of Jesus and won’t accept Him as it is. why does hollywood think Christians are going to watch a fictional Jesus story? Jesus said that if you want eternal life, all you have to do is ask Him and He will show you whether or not He is the Son of God. no need for Fox to make up stories about the teenage years of Jesus. sad.
Yep, keep getting your religion from Rupy’s network.
Wasn’t it the Bible that state the mark of the beast would be F-O-X?
Best reply of the week!
The level of anger and intolerance from the atheist left never fails to rear its ugly head.
Try spending a little time in a Church and opening your heart to the Lord. It’ll help take away all that anger inside you.
Not an athesit at all, bro…
But you’re kidding yourself if this is where you’re getting the kool-aid from.
Yes, because Christians have no anger at all in them. Nope. Not one!
so what does that say about Cosmos
So, a work of fiction?
This is going to be a farce like all the other secular attempts at depicting anything Christian! Note the words ‘as he comes to learn he is the Son of God and is destined for greatness.’ He IS God in human flesh, there was never a time when He didn’t know that He was God in human flesh. But leave it to Hollywood to miss everything truthful about Jesus and vomit up their version. Need proof…The movie “Noah”!!!! Nuff said.
“there was never a time when He didn’t know that He was God in human flesh”
“Father why have ye forsaken me?”
God just loves to pray to himself, huh.
Perfect point, one that people who believe Jesus was God himself rather than a separate being are never, ever, ever EVER able to adequately explain. lol
Jesus was appropriately quoting scripture (Psalm 22) which describes a righteous sufferer demostrating faith and obedience. Reading the entire Psalm will give you a better context. As to whether Jesus was God in the form of a man, check out the book of John.
Actually, notz & Cory:
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” – Matthew ch27 v46.
The reason Jesus said that, is because he was quoting Psalm 22, verse 1. It’s the “Psalm of the Cross” for a reason, because it details Jesus’ crucifixion hundreds of years before it happened.
It is easy to misunderstand if you don’t know.
Always loved that jesus is god. jesus said: “love thy neighbor” while god creates a flood and wipes out all of humanity save for eight people whose duty it was to inbreed.
..”God just loves to pray to himself, huh.?” …
Amazing how shallow are atheists who have zero, zilch, nada, comprehension of scripture. Short answer: Jesus was indeed human, born of Mary, but also because of divine intervention to fertilze eggs. In that YOU are also part of YOUR FATHER, Jesus was also part of HIS FATHER. Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”. Jesus knew who He was, and what was going to happen to Him. It wasn’t merely the physical pain of being crucified that distressed Him, but rather willingly taking on the EN TOTO MASS OF WORLD SIN .. since the beginning, to the end. What agony !
It could well be a metaphor. It doesn’t necessarily mean literally “one day he finds out he is the Son of God” – it may well mean in the sense of coming to understand what that means and what it entails to be the Son of God.
We know that Jesus always knew that he was the Son, but we also know that he did not come into the world with all omniscience; Luke 2:52 speaks of him increasing in wisdom as he learns. The hypostatic union makes him both fully divine and fully human, and what human is there who doesn’t learn and grow, and learn his purpose? Without this doctrine, Jesus could never doubt or falter; his temptation in the desert would be meaningless, to take one example of scripture that depends upon it.
going to be so disappointed if daniel stern doesn’t narrate as the young jesus. :)
oops as the older jesus.
No. Bob Saget.
“Kids, have I ever told you about the time I met Jesus?”
You should not write fiction TV series about biblical characters because it will confuse people on what is really in the Bible plus it is as improper as the false writings written by Gnostics and Pagans who falsely depicting biblical characters in their writings.
That’s the point sparky, to confuse people. Try and keep up. Do you really think that liberals have as a goal people turning to Jesus Christ? What about their gay marriage and their abortions? SO since empirically, winning converts can’t be the goal, what might the goal be in “imagining” Jesus’ early life? See what I did there with the atheist anthem “Imagine”, huh? Did ya get it?
First, the goal of Hollywood is to make money. Same as the goal of publishing, the auto industry, the pharmaceutical industry . . . in fact, let’s just say: people like money. I like money, don’t you? Well, so do Hollywood executives, because how else are they going to get a car nice enough to impress the valets? (Hollywood valets are not easily impressed. These are not Tuscaloosa valets – a nice pick-up truck won’t cut it. But I digress.)
Second, the reason Bible stories tend not to translate well is that they are poorly-written. God may be God, but God is not Philip K. Dick. (Dick may however be God. And yes, you are free to read that however you like.) These are stories written 2000-odd years ago. They lack structure, the character development is a mess, there’s a real shortage of female roles, in fact there aren’t three roles for Meryl Streep in the entire Bible. Plus, there are remarkably few car chases.
There are 26 plot lines in all of western literature….every one is in the Bible….some just need to be expanded to make a good movie perhaps . There are also good stories in the Quaran….but getting them to the screen is kinda hard , if you hope to keep your head…which explains why NOAH is banned in Muslim countries…NOAH as you may know Is a messenger of the Prophet (bapbuh ) so it is Not a good idea to Mock him.
Gnosis is precisely what Jesus was teaching followers to become aware of as their connection to God, through him.
The Gnosticism of the early Christian centuries was influenced by the mystery cults and pagan philosophies; so, it’s improper to claim Jesus was teaching Gnosis. They produced a lot of false writings that paralleled scripture and misled people. This fiction TV series would also do a dis-justice in it’s false depictions that will mislead people away from the truth. Their goal is money, but you can bet when secular people are involved there will be those who want to slight things out of an anti-biblical bias.
This ‘story’ idea is CRAP. There is not one word in Holy Tradition or in Holy Scripture about Our Lord and Savior’s “formative” years. And why didn’t God provide us with this information? Because He saw fit not to do so, presumably because that information is NOT FOR US TO KNOW!!!
Fox Entertainment, please stick to what you do best: Blondes and boobs.
Well it’s glaringly obvious you have never done any research into how the Bible came to exist, or the history of it. And there are plenty of texts that touch on Jesus’ childhood. And if god gave man free will there’s literally no reason NOT to assume that the men who made the Bible were power hungry, and picked and chose what to include to best manipulate the masses. Therefore, there’s no viable reason why any network or writer can’t make a story about it if they so wish.
What are they going to do for sequels with all these religious movies and shows? Once Jesus is crucified you’re kind of done.
Unless. . . Alternate Universe Jesus! Then you can really get into the whole romance angle much more. Jesus can date Mary Jane Watson when he’s just regular old God Man. And he can date Gwen Stacy when he’s The Amazing God Man.
And that’s not even getting into divine crossovers where God Man battles Thor before realizing they have to unite against Zeus, Black Baal and the Red God from Game Of Thrones.
Now, how do we work Harry Potter into this, that’s the question. And can we cast Will Smith as God Man without pissing people off over the race thing.
When are they going to do one about Mohammad’s formative years?
“How I Met Your Savior”
Hollywood-Jesus, Fire-Water.
What next? Murderers writing stories about the sanctity of life?
Not interested
One word: Why?
The title- Nazareth 90210
One of the proofs we have that Jesus lived at the time Christians say He did, is the absence of detail regarding his years spent as a child. We know that that at about that time Cleopatra was surrounded by scribes in the greatest academic setting in the world, but nothing is known about her childhood because that is how it was at that time in history. The absence of detail regarding the youth of Jesus is proof that He lived when we say he suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again from the dead. This absence of detail reveals also that false gospels with a stories about the childhood of Jesus are later fabrications culled from pseudonymous writers.
We have all the information we need to bring us to faith. Why try to commercialize the teen years of Jesus?
Actually, those of us who have done what he asked, “Acts 2:38” have received what he promised (Acts 2:4) which is the PROOF that He is real.
‘SMALLVILLE’ forJesus…perfect log-line *AND* makes me even more excited to watch it!
Not enough religious-themed TV-movies and specials (save for the Roma Downey-produced above-mentioned title)…good for Fox network for exploring new ground
Would be very interesting. While his life isn’t written about during this time period, it was apparently an ordinary life of the time.
combing that with the expectation/burden of what was to come could make for a good show
Notice how this writer of limited knowledge writes “which is described as a coming-of-age story exploring Jesus’ early life and formative years as he comes to learn he is the Son of God and is destined for greatness.” As the Son of God, Jesus knew exactly who He was and what His destiny was. That’s why this will be a colossal failure in terms of facts. It’s very premise is incorrect. We all would like to know specifically what His childhood and young adult life was like. There is nothing recorded, which was intentional. He spoke and made himself known according to His plan.
This may make for a nice feel good story but won’t have any factual basis to grab onto.
Yeah, nice catch!
This is false.
Luke 2:52 explicitly contradicts you. Though Jesus was always aware of his mission and purpose, he also had to be a man – the hypostatic union requires him to be FULLY man as well as fully divine, and what man is there that does not learn and grow?
Fox News talking heads?
this is insulting. There is no foundation for creating a show about Jesus growing up since there is no Biblical reference of Jesus growing up except for his birth and one event where he read the scriptures in the temple when he was 12 years old.
I don’t know the intentions of Fox or the people making the show but the idea of this is insulting to me. Perhaps I am just mad at how the Noah movie was made right now but I believe that the Bible and my Lord Jesus are sacred and the truth should be preserved
I am a Christian. I believe that the Bible told us all we need to know about Jesus. His years growing up were kept mostly private for a reason so he could grow up normally before starting his ministry at the age of 30. It would be much better to defend the truth that Jesus is Lord in a TV show than to make up “believable scenarios” that “could have” happened when he was growing up.
“I don’t know the intentions of Fox or the people making the show”- they’re hoping to make money.
Last night watched a NETFIX series on “The Bible”. It was alright but gave me food for thought. The Vatican is one of the few religious institutes that has not been vandalized, looted or destroyed. In all her existence and the vast collection of ancient documents to religious icons belonging to both Christianity and other faiths are locked up in her many museums, vaults, etc. I am sure there must be somewhere in that massive store of history some reference to the early years of Christ.
Nah, Nick Cage took that shit years ago.
I hope they make Jesus blonde, blue eyed and with straight hair just like everyone who lived in the middle east and north Africa at that time. Right?
and remember God speaks with a British accent. (the oldest depiction of Christ from the third century show him as typical greco-arab (although it is etched on dark rock) beardless short haired intellectual type person.)