{"id":1753631,"date":"2022-11-28T10:47:56","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T15:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1753631"},"modified":"2022-11-28T10:48:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T15:48:02","slug":"greatest-king-of-israel-angel-studios-teams-with-south-african-filmmaker-to-bring-animated-david-to-big-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/greatest-king-of-israel-angel-studios-teams-with-south-african-filmmaker-to-bring-animated-david-to-big-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Greatest King Of Israel\u2019: Angel Studios Teams With South African Filmmaker To Bring Animated \u2018David\u2019 To Big Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgreatest-king-of-israel-angel-studios-teams-with-south-african-filmmaker-to-bring-animated-david-to-big-screen%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1753631&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Faith-based audiences can rally in staggering numbers.<\/p>\n<p>We saw that via 2004\u2019s \u201cThe Passion of the Christ,\u201d which shocked Hollywood by earning $370 million stateside.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequent spiritual films earned far less, but \u201cWar Room,\u201d \u201cHeaven Is for Real,\u201d \u201cI Can Only Imagine\u201d and the \u201cGod\u2019s Not Dead\u201d franchise still out-earned some mainstream fare.<\/p>\n<p>The creators behind the upcoming \u201cDavid,\u201d an animated musical about King David, think their story can lure in far more than just the faithful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid was the second and greatest King of Israel and is one of the most central figures of the Jewish faith and Israeli culture,\u201d says Michael Jenkins, the film\u2019s executive producer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Christian New Testament records David in the lineage of Jesus, who was at times even called \u2018Son\u00a0of David,\u2019 and David is later described in the New Testament as a \u2018man after God\u2019s own heart,\u2019\u201d Jenkins continues. \u201cOutside of the faith community, David\u2019s story is well-known and has captured the imagination across many generations and cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The trick, Jenkins says, is to tell faithful stories with narratives that can attract a wider swath of the movie-going public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a challenge and opportunity that artists and storytellers, who are also people of faith, need to step up to and embrace,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Hollywood isn\u2019t itching to tell a faith-based story of this magnitude, so the \u201cDavid\u201d team turned to Angel Studios to light the way. The company, which previously crowdfunded cultural smashes like Dry Bar Comedy and \u201cThe Chosen,\u201d is helping to raise the $30 million needed to complete the feature.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s on top of the more than $24 million Team \u201cDavid\u201d already raised.<\/p>\n<p>Patience won\u2019t be a problem. Jenkins says the upcoming film is more than 20 years in the making. Co-director Phil Cunningham, founder of Sunrise Animation Studios in South Africa, wrote the 20021 book \u201cThe VIII Son,\u201d what Jenkins calls a first draft, of sorts, of the \u201cDavid\u201d script.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Sunrise Animation Studios has been beefing up its staff, craftsmanship and storytelling processes \u201cto do justice to a story as important as David,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, Jenkins\u2019 team created a five-minute demo reel to lure curious investors, both large and small. That clips, featuring animation on par with most major studios, shows a young David risking it all to save a little lamb\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<p>One funding partner, Jenkins says, couldn\u2019t get that 5-minute teaser out of his mind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to tell\u00a0people that this movie will be major-studio quality, but I think the \u2018David\u2019 demo\u00a0has done an amazing job of providing a small taste of the look of David, and\u00a0the mix of adventure,\u00a0humor and\u00a0poignancy in our\u00a0approach,\u201d Jenkins says.<\/p>\n<p>The team later raised roughly $17 million, which included trips to Israel and assembling a creative team to complete the project.<\/p>\n<p>That team, including animators from \u201cMoana,\u201d \u201cFinding Nemo\u201d and other beloved films, responded to the project\u2019s big picture, Jenkins says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese artists could feel that this film was not born in a boardroom but from a deep creative\u00a0place. It is not a film built to tick [off] boxes, but a film built to inspire a generation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>In a way, we\u2019ve seen glimpses of King David\u2019s legacy across pop culture for decades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid\u2019s life has inspired artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers from Michelangelo to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Leonard Cohen,\u201d Jenkins says. \u201cSome of these have depicted David very differently from the Biblical account, in ways that Christians and Jews may find offensive, but this just goes to show how far beyond the faith community David\u2019s story has reached.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The David vs. Goliath template alone, he says, remains a key underdog inspiration, but some may not know the breadth of King David\u2019s talents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid was an elite musician and songwriter, recruited from across a nation to play music for King Saul, and the author of nearly half the Psalms,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>The project\u2019s $55 million price tag may seem imposing, but it\u2019s a fraction of what similar Hollywood fare costs. The 2016 smash \u201cMoana,\u201d for example, is reported to cost <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/disney-most-expensive-cheapest-animated-films\/\">between $150-175 million for Disney.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve always had to be lean, innovative, agile and efficient, because we\u2019ve built our studio far away from the massive budgets and expenses of Hollywood,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cWe have nimble decision-making processes. We work hard at putting the full value of every dollar onto the screen rather than carrying\u00a0bloated overheads.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Angel Studios has a sturdy track record when it comes to crowdfunding-style campaigns, but Jenkins says money isn\u2019t the only concern for the project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you set out to tell a story that so many people know so well and love so deeply, it\u2019s really important to deliver a movie that lives up to expectations, and the sense of ownership that so many people have of this story,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Toward that end, Team \u201cDavid\u201d approaches the material with an eye on both spirituality and authenticity.<\/p>\n<p>Hollywood didn\u2019t always look beyond its own ecosystem to create faith-based epics. Classics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faith-based audiences can rally in staggering numbers. We saw that via 2004\u2019s \u201cThe Passion of the Christ,\u201d which shocked Hollywood by earning $370 million stateside. Subsequent spiritual films earned far less, but \u201cWar Room,\u201d \u201cHeaven Is for Real,\u201d \u201cI Can Only Imagine\u201d and the \u201cGod\u2019s Not Dead\u201d franchise still out-earned some mainstream fare. The creators &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":1753634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1753631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1753631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1753634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1753631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1753631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1753631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}