{"id":12084,"date":"2019-01-23T08:45:38","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T13:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2019-01-24T14:09:57","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T19:09:57","slug":"history-nutopia-bring-jesus-story-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/history-nutopia-bring-jesus-story-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"HISTORY & Nutopia Bring Jesus\u2019 Story to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Premiering on March 25 on HISTORY, the eight-part series <\/em>Jesus: His Life aims to tell the story of Jesus Christ in a way that has never been seen before: through the eyes of the people closest to him.<\/em><\/p>\n

From Jane Root’s Nutopia, the series\u2014a lead offering for A+E Networks at NATPE this week\u2014will use a mix of talking heads and scripted elements as it brings Jesus\u2019 story to life. For the first time, his story will be told from the perspectives of Joseph, John the Baptist, Mary, Caiaphas, Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, Mary Magdalene and Peter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was having a conversation about a year ago with Amy Savitsky, [the senior VP of development and programming at A&E], and she said that the whole company was looking for a big project on the Bible,\u201d Root, founder and chief executive at Nutopia, tells TV Real<\/em> about how Jesus: His Life<\/em> came about. That conversation rekindled an idea that Root and the team at Nutopia had contemplated, but never executed on\u2014to look at the lives of the \u201cindividual people in the Bible who knew Jesus, ordinary people who were touched by one of the most extraordinary events in history. What was it like to live your life alongside somebody who people still know 2,000 years later? What kind of special insight do you have into who he was and how he lived?\u201d<\/p>\n

For Liz Soriano, the VP of international programming at A+E Networks, the project was perfect for the HISTORY brand. “HISTORY has done other religious-themed programs and shows that have been specifically about Jesus. There was one from a number of years ago that put us on the map, The Bible<\/em> [from executive producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett]. As Jane says, the story of Jesus is one that really has touched everyone. There\u2019s been excitement [for the series] in every major territory throughout the world. HISTORY has long been a leader in this genre of programming, and we\u2019re just super excited that what\u2019s coming forward is a brand-new and exciting way of telling Jesus\u2019 story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Root says Jesus: His Life<\/em> delivers \u201cthe most comprehensive story about Jesus ever told. You see his whole life from birth to death through all the different people whose lives were intertwined with his.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project, naturally, required a significant amount of research. \u201cWe\u2019re research junkies,\u201d says Root of the team at Nutopia. \u201cWe have a panel of consultants who we worked with, and we talked to people across the whole world. And then we dived into finding every detail we could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marking a new direction for the company, Nutopia also enlisted the services of a team of well-regarded drama writers for the scripted portions of Jesus: His Life<\/em>. \u201cWe wanted to convey the real intimacy and emotion in these ordinary people\u2019s lives,\u201d Root says.<\/p>\n

The reenactments were filmed at the iconic Atlas Studios, just outside of Ouarzazate, Morocco, which has been used for Lawrence of Arabia<\/em>, Gladiator<\/em> and Game of Thrones<\/em>, among many other films and TV series. “Ouarzazate is between the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert,” Root says. “We had three languages spoken on-set\u2014English, French and Arabic\u2014a production designer from Israel, actors from America and a Spanish costume designer. It really is a global production.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pulled together in less than a year, Jesus: His Life<\/em> features a seamless mix of experts talking about the people in Jesus\u2019 orbit and scripted scenes that bring that history to life. \u201cThey are completely intertwined,\u201d Root notes. \u201cWe go back and forth between people talking about what’s happening and immersive, emotional experiences about the moments that you’re in. And we want them to be completely connected. They shed light on each other. They work together. That’s the most important thing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soriano says she’s seen interest in these mega-docs on the rise globally. “HISTORY has always done this very well\u2014it\u2019s in our wheelhouse. Mega-docs combine these creative elements of scripted and expert interviews in a way that makes the story very accessible and entertaining to the viewer. The viewer is going to range from our core audience member who is the history enthusiast all the way out to someone who happens to be curious about the program and they get pulled in. What’s amazing about this type of program, this format and this style, is that it helps you appreciate not just the facts, but the emotional aspect of the characters in the story and the time during which they live. That’s why the appeal has been growing\u2014because we’re able to tell stories that you may not have been able to fully appreciate but now you can because it pulls you in in a knowledgeable, but even more importantly, in an emotional way. That’s global; it doesn’t matter where you’re from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Root says she was surprised by many of the things she discovered while making Jesus: His Life<\/em>. \u201cI was amazed that Joseph probably wasn’t just a carpenter, he was a builder, actually building houses. I thought, Wow, why didn\u2019t I know that? And the fact that there was a shockingly low life expectancy at the time of Jesus\u201425 to 27\u2014mostly as a result of child mortality. Just how dangerous having a baby was, both for the baby and the mother, was shocking. On average, every four births at that time resulted in a death, either of the mother or the child, or both. There are a whole lot of things you find out about people, and personal things as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an undertaking that no one has ever done before,\u201d adds Soriano. \u201cWhat you\u2019re going to see pop on-screen is Jesus the man, along with the bits of the story that you\u2019ve always known. What viewers will be taken by are the personalities and understanding, to a certain extent, the feelings that all of these others were going through as they were experiencing the life of their son, their friend, their enemy. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s ever been a body of work that has done this before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nutopia’s Jane Root and A+E Networks’ Liz Soriano talk about HISTORY’s new mega-doc, Jesus: His Life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":12085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[114,474,2611,3361,1278],"class_list":["post-12084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-ae-networks","tag-history","tag-jane-root","tag-jesus-his-life","tag-nutopia","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nHISTORY & Nutopia Bring Jesus\u2019 Story to Life - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/history-nutopia-bring-jesus-story-to-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"HISTORY & Nutopia Bring Jesus\u2019 Story to Life - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nutopia's Jane Root and A+E Networks' Liz Soriano talk about HISTORY's new mega-doc, Jesus: His Life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/history-nutopia-bring-jesus-story-to-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-23T13:45:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-24T19:09:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2017\/07\/JesusHisLife-AE-119.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/history-nutopia-bring-jesus-story-to-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/history-nutopia-bring-jesus-story-to-life\/\",\"name\":\"HISTORY & Nutopia Bring Jesus\u2019 Story to Life - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-23T13:45:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-24T19:09:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/history-nutopia-bring-jesus-story-to-life\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/history-nutopia-bring-jesus-story-to-life\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/history-nutopia-bring-jesus-story-to-life\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"HISTORY & Nutopia Bring Jesus\u2019 Story to Life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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