Hollywood's current favorite leading man is charismatic, has a faithful following and doesn't shy away from social issues. And it's not John Hamm, Tony Goldwyn or Taylor Kinney.
It's Jesus, son of God.
Ever since Roma Downey-Mark Burnett's religious drama "The Bible" premiered to 13 million viewers in 2013, Hollywood has put more faith in religious films and network programming. Last year's release of biblically inspired feature films "Noah" and "Exodus: Gods and Kings" began what the Los Angeles Times terms "Hollywood's holy trend." The continued proliferation in religious programming underscores the fact Tinseltown recognizes that the faith-based audience is underserved and relatively untapped.
In just the last eight weeks, CNN aired "Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery"; National Geographic Channel presented "Killing Jesus" on Palm Sunday, and the CW premiered "The Messengers" in April, which is loosely -- very loosely -- based on angels as messengers.
Cote de Pablo plays Shirah, in the CBS two-night mini-series "The Dovekeepers," based on the best-selling novel of the same name. (CBS Photo)CBS tapped into its "NCIS" fan base by casting Cote de Pablo (formerly Ziva on "NCIS") in "The Dovekeepers," another Burnett-Downey drama that aired in March and followed four Hebrew women during the siege of Masada in 73-74 A.D. Even the Weather Channel has jumped on the biblical bandwagon with "Top 10: Bible Weather," a look at Old Testament catastrophic storms, floods and plagues.
In previous years, religious programming was mostly limited to televangelists, Sunday morning services broadcast from local churches, and the annual Easter airing of "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or "The Ten Commandments." Now "Scripture TV" is gobbling up prime time faster than the locust plague God sent to Egypt.
"I think Hollywood is recognizing that Christians are tired of the filth on TV, the junk that's out there now, and there is a huge Christian market available," says Leah Hooper, outreach pastor of East Chattanooga Church of God. "Also, more people are realizing that the Bible itself makes for incredible TV. The stories in the Bible are better than anything we can write or create -- and they are real."
Greta Scacchi as Mother Mary comforts Adam Levy as Peter in the epi- sode titled "The First Martyr" on the NBC series "A.D. The Bible Continues." (Joe Alblas/LightWorkers Media/NBC photo)No one does that better than conservative Christian producers Burnett and Downey, who recently have scored another evangelical blockbuster with "A.D.: The Bible Continues." "A.D." focuses on the ministries of the Apostles following the crucifixion of Christ. The 12-week NBC series debuted on Easter Sunday and attracted 9.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The show continues to lord it over its Sunday night competition by winning its time slot weekly and averaging 6 to 7 million viewers for each episode.
"There's no question that Hollywood is getting the message that the more biblically accurate the movie or TV series, the greater the audience. Mark and Roma are proving that," Hollywood evangelical writer and producer Phil Cooke said in an Entertainment Weekly interview.
"The great challenge is that movie studios and TV networks aren't Christian organizations," he said. "They're driven by creative people who want to put their own spin on stories ... and since many of these filmmakers aren't believers, they look at these Bible stories the same way I'd look at a fairy tale."
For that exact reason, local pastors say they see the rise of "A.D." and other Bible-based shows as a double-edged sword. While the episodes spread the Good News, some of their fictional aspects may misrepresent events to the unchurched.
"Because of that creative license, it could lend some confusion for people who are not particularly well-versed with Scripture and who will use a movie as a basis for the Bible as opposed to going to the actual story in the Scripture," says the Rev. Reed Shell, senior pastor at Hixson United Methodist Church.
Shell says he hasn't watched "A.D." but has heard parishioners discussing it and questions it raised. He speculates that the current proliferation in religious programming may be an effort "to counter other things happening in today's culture, specifically news of extremism that captures the headlines. This may counter some of that to tell the Christian story vs. stories in headlines about the Muslim faith."
Beth Mason, a Sunday school teacher at Morris Hill Baptist Church, agrees that world events may have whet consumers' appetite for religious history and understanding what different faiths believe. She has been watching "A.D." and believes episodes remain true to Scripture but says producers do take creative license. For example, in one episode James and his wife were played by black actors.
Executive producers Mark Burnette and Roma Downey on the set of "The Bible." (PRNewsfoto/The History Channel)"We don't know if they were black or not, the Bible doesn't say, we only know they were Jewish. 'A.D.' sticks to the Scripture, but adds things to it. I think it helps, though, that the producers are believers," says Mason.
The popularity of "A.D." has prompted East Chattanooga Church of God to hold a weekly sermon series in connection with the show. The floor is opened for discussion, pastor Fred Smith answers questions about what viewers are seeing as opposed to what Scripture says, then he asks the audience members for their impressions.
Hooper, who is Smith's daughter, says "A.D." has caused the unchurched to ask questions about the Bible and prompted believers to pick up their Bibles and reread the Gospels to answer questions the show may raise.
"The thing about 'A.D.' I have respected is that it hasn't, to my knowledge, added anything we don't see in the Gospels," says Hooper. "They've imagined some things differently that weren't explicitly written in the Scripture, but there is nothing that opposes the Scripture.
"It's showing there is truth to the word, that the Bible is gaining popularity and through technology the word has an audience it never had before."
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.