Cinematic Jesus: Status 2023 Jan

Cinematic Jesus – Newsletter January Edition 2023‍

By Santiago Kneeland

The writing team has begun its work!

The kickoff meeting for the writing team was held on January 11, and the team is now assembled and working on the project. The team is composed of 7 people who will be working on a general outline of the plotline. The first task is to delineate the entire story, and then break it down into chapters, each with its own dramatic narrative and arcs.

Among the things we discussed and agreed upon are the following:

• We will create a general plot outline of the 70 episodes, in order to identify themes and arcs.
• The story will not be chronological, and we will navigate through the different key events to structure the narration of the story.
• We will base Jesus' dialogue on what is written in The Urantia Book, and only when necessary will we add additional dialogue for him.
• We will consider the expansion of the narration to include Michael of Nebadon, and not only his incarnation on earth as Jesus of Nazareth. The expansion of this narration that explains his true nature will give us a different context than what is currently known. Although this will create controversy, it will also create intrigue that many, who do not know The Urantia Book, will like to explore.
• We acknowledge that our audience is young and we need to present a different version of Jesus that can engage them (not the classical Grandma's Jesus we all know). We will use myth elements such as the Hero's Journey, where we can present the evolution and realization from his human nature to divine status.
• We will adapt the language to more current usage, while keeping key phrases like "Lazarus, Come Forth!" or The Lord's Prayer as stated in The Urantia Book.

We are all very excited about the new developments on this project. Once we have the general plotline, we will be working on the Treatment, in order to present to production/distribution companies.

To be continued...

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