Mark Burnett & Roma Downey
By Suzanne O'Keeffe, 700 Club Interactive
CBN.com –THE BIBLE SERIES
Mark and Roma have been married since 2007 and collectively have many TV acclaims. March 3rd on the History Channel they will launch yet another anticipated hit, The Bible. Roma has been quoted saying that she has loved Jesus all her life, and that this project is from a place of passion for them both. Roma's mother had her family watch The Ten Commandments every Easter and she loved it. With the passage of time, Roma and Mark realized the original movie had become "dated", and noticed it did not hold the attention of their children when they watched it. So, they set to work on producing a series that would bring an engaging and energetic presentation. While having to size down some of the stories, and due to lack of time leaving some out, they said they did "take some dramatic license in production covering Genesis to Revelation. The development of the series, and especially casting, was faithfully covered in prayer. Mark and Roma took seriously and great care in choosing who would play the role of Jesus in the series. They finally chose an actor who was described as being gentle and having humanity. He is Diogo Morgado, a Portuguese actor. Including her role as executive producer, Roma also took on playing the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Since Mark has much time and experience invested in developing dynamic and magnetic shows, he was able to produce this series to be of high quality that could compare with feature films. They drew on the talent of Hans Zimmer to produce the musical score and every page of dialogue was run by theologians and researchers. They wanted to "make sure this production would match the time period of the Bible..."
Knowing that in today's culture, this is a controversial subject they still believe,"you have to step out there" and while they are not trying to be experts when it comes to the bible, there is a message to get across.
According to Mark, "it's going to speak to all generations, genders and faiths." They hope that the airing of this series will not only bring "the faithful" but those who are "Bible illiterate" as well.
Their passion and desire is to create productions that will encourage, uplift, and awaken another generation to the Bible.