Day two of WonderCon was filled with exciting film events, including a well-attended panel discussion of the upcoming Christian animation movie, The King of Kings. Even though notable stars, Oscar Isaac, Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, and Pierce Brosnan weren’t present, the moderator presented a short clip where the awards winners shared their experience of the film.
Oscar-winner Branagh who plays narrator Charles Dickens, gushed at the opportunity to discuss his affinity for the British writer. He described Dickens as “a masterful storyteller.” Isaac, who plays Jesus Christ, described how his most difficult feat was bringing his self to the character of Jesus. Thurman said, “Christ was always an image of compassion to me.” The actors conveyed that the film offered a humanistic portrayal of Jesus.
Following the video, panelists, Seong-ho “Jay” Jang, Woo-Hyung Kim, Rob Edwards, James Arnold Taylor, Fred Tatasciore, and Jamie Thomason, were invited to discuss their experience creating a fresh perspective for the story of Jesus Christ. South Korean director, Jang, spoke with an interpreter. He opened the discussion with a meditation on the uniqueness of delivering an incredibly well-known story from the perspective of Charles Dickens.
One of the first questions asked of Kim was his title of cinematographer in an animated film. “I am a person who moves the camera physically,” he said about being asked by Jang to do his first animated film. “But you guys have no camera.” At the end of the day, he learned it felt the same because the system reads his movement as though he was holding a camera.
Adding onto Kim’s comments, Jang responded that everything was in 3-D and the virtual camera was used to control the virtual reality. It’s probably not coincidental that he followed that up with a mention of how it took ten years to raise money for production. Another concern of Jang’s was accuracy. In light of the pressure to not make mistakes, he consulted a group of university scholars to ensure he was presenting the story correctly.
One of the writers, Rob Edwards of The Princess and the Frog and Captain America: Brave New World, was initially brought on to make the South Korean screenplay workable. As he got into it, he realized he could “dig deeper and work on some of the characters.” He always had an interest in working on a faith-based project and enthusiastically mentioned filtering some of the characters through a Disney-Pixar lens.
The casting director, Thomason, was asked about his stellar cast. He said the idea of having Dickens as a narrator was something people responded well to. For Therman, the choice was easy: “Uma Therman accepted right away. She said, ‘Yes, I want to do it. This movie needs to be made. This movie needs to be done.”
According to Thomason, Isaac has the charm and charisma of Jesus Christ. He even told a story about how he saw a GQ magazine cover years ago calling the Oscar-nominated actor, “Cool Jesus.” Now he only calls Isaac the endearing nickname.
Finding a new way to tell the story of Jesus is difficult, but panel members ensured the accessibility of the film for all audiences. Edwards made the point, “You have Charles Dickens, and you have his Walter, and Walter doesn’t want to hear the story.” In convincing Walter, he convinces the audience.
The trailer for the film has been released. Produced by Mofac Studios and distributed by Angel Studios, the film comes to theaters April 11.
