Mark Burnett, who established himself as the biggest name in reality television with hits like “Survivor” and “The Voice” (not to mention “Sarah Palin’s Alaska”), will shift his focus to scripted TV with a ten-hour miniseries for History that will tell different stories from the Bible.
The series will have five two-hour parts, Mr. Burnett said, and each will probably contain two or three biblical stories. He and his team are selecting the stories for the series, he said [translation: they’re reading the Bible for the first time], which will be in production through next year and shown in 2013.
“Some of the stories are obvious,” Mr. Burnett said, like Noah’s Ark, Exodus and accounts of the birth and death of Jesus. But the project will also cover stories that Mr. Burnett said he was unfamiliar with. [NYT]
Well, Mr. Burnett, I’d like to take this opportunity to familiarize you with the official version of Sodom and Gomorrah. Did you know that people used to have sex with rocks painted to look like God’s face?
Anyway, I guess it’s about time Hollywood warmed up Cecil B. DeMille’s work and served it to us. After this does awesome ratings, maybe Burnett can get God on board for a Rapture-themed reality show: twenty sinners compete to change their ways and repent, but only one will get to Heaven. Tentatively titled “Who Will Save Your Soul?”
