Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Interview: Cindy Bond (The Ten Commandments, 2007)

Interview: Cindy Bond (The Ten Commandments, 2007)

Last updated on: April 8, 2016 at 10:38 am by Peter T. Chattaway

Interview: Cindy Bond (The Ten Commandments, 2007) 2016-04-08T10:38:48-07:00 Peter T. Chattaway

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

As chief operating officer of Promenade Pictures, Cindy Bond had high hopes for The Ten Commandments, the first in a projected 12-part series of computer-animated ‘Epic Stories of the Bible,’ when it opened in theatres last October. But the film failed to make much of a splash, opening well out of the Top 20 and grossing less than a million dollars — on a project that cost $11.6 million to make.

The movie came out on DVD last week, and Bond spoke to CT Movies about what went wrong — and how things might be different with their next film, a comedy about Noah’s Ark due sometime around Easter 2009.

The Ten Commandments didn’t do very well at the box office last year. Is it fair to say the film bombed?

Bond: I don’t think that’s the case at all. You know what “bomb” has to do with? It has to do with how much it costs to produce the movie, and then how much they make at the box office and then the DVD. I mean, comparing our budget to what we made at the box office and what we’re going to make on DVD, this movie will be in profit. Very few movies can boast that, in Hollywood. There was a movie starring Brad Pitt [The Assassination of Jesse James] that opened around the same time we did, that was made for a budget in the $30 million range, and they only made I think north of $3 million.

Also, we didn’t have an enormous amount of money in our marketing campaign, and we didn’t have a lot of time. We only had about three months to market the movie, and our big focus was the grassroots side of the campaign, through the churches, and it takes a long time. [When CT Movies interviewed Bond and Promenade CEO Frank Yablans last October, Yablans said the company had been “developing our material for 4½ years” and had a $120 million “war chest” for its projects. — Ed.]

The good side is the people who did see the movie really liked it. We have a good solid B on Box Office Mojo from people who saw the movie and really liked it. We made the movie for moms, pops and kids, for families. We started off making The Ten Commandments originally as a direct-to-video movie, and about half-way in we said, “It looks so great, let’s work to go theatrical,” and so that’s what happened. And considering we were going to make a direct-to-DVD movie and ended up with what we did, I think we did a great job!

So was the theatrical release sort of like a commercial for the DVD?

Bond: Exactly, one hundred percent. If we hadn’t gone theatrical, we’d be starting from scratch with our DVD marketing, but it was absolutely one hundred percent a big commercial for the DVD release.

Did it do better than you expected? Worse?

Bond: No, it definitely did worse than I expected. I thought it would do better. But then, you know, looking at the marketing campaign having only three months, it’s just– I know hindsight is always 20/20, but we absolutely did not have enough time. There were various individuals on our marketing team that were very concerned from the beginning, but there was a release schedule and we went with it. In hindsight, we would have held out and gone theatrical now.

I think people were talking about The Passion at least a year before it came out. That movie really had time to drum up the interest.

Bond: Yeah. And Bella is another good example; they were out there at least nine months to a year, and it was a very good movie. Ten Commandments was a very good movie. We just tried to pull off the impossible, we tried to pull it together in three months, and it just wasn’t enough time.

Ten Commandments is a really good movie that we’re very proud of. I know the movie’s anointed. I’ve gotten so many letters of support, letters that have said they feel the movie is very anointed.

There was also some controversy before the film came out, over the advertising.

Bond: Yeah, and I’m wondering if it worked against us. We had bought airtime on Disney Radio for a spot that we had created, to run on their network; that’s our core audience, is kids, probably five to 12 years old. So we bought the time and gave them our spot — which by the way had already been accepted by Ryan Seacrest and Dr. Laura and numerous other radio shows — and only Radio Disney came back and said, “We’ll play your spot but you have to take out the words ‘chosen by God.'” Well, the grapevine is an interesting thing, because some pastor friends and industry friends had heard a rumor that Disney made Promenade take God out of the movie! And I’m thinking, ‘Where did that come from?’ But it couldn’t be farther from the truth. We felt it was better to take out the words “chosen by God” [from the ad] and to advertise in front of the kids and get them in the theatre so they can hear about God, rather than just pull it and not give them any awareness. So that was the controversy.

The Ten Commandments was created as part of a projected series of 12 films. Is that still the case?

Bond: Oh yes, absolutely the case. We arranged financing for all 12 in the beginning, and like I said, we anticipated the first one would go direct-to-DVD. The second in the series has been theatrical from day one, as will the other pictures, and the second picture, The Flood, is just absolutely fantastic. And the animation has improved actually a huge amount. We did the best we could on the first one, and we knew it would be a learning curve, and it’s just very exciting to see what all the animators are doing. I just got back from New Zealand, so I’m pretty pumped up.

You just said The Flood. The title I’ve heard is Noah’s Ark: The New Beginning.

Bond: Well, right now we’re all in a working-title phase. So right now we’re talking about The Flood, over Noah’s Ark: The New Beginning. But it’s the story of Noah.

But definitely with a twist: We’ve got talking animals, and one of the little animals gets in trouble and doesn’t look like he’s going to make the cruise, and the other ones have to go out and find him. There’s a lot of humor, and the cast is unbelievable. We’ve got Michael Keaton and Marcia Gay Harden, who won an Oscar for Pollock, and we’ve got Sir Ben Kingsley, and we’ve got Rob Schneider who is just hysterical — he plays a prairie dog — and we have talking animals and a lot more humour.

The Ten Commandments, inherently, is a tough story, it’s not a comedy. We injected levity into the movie as much as we could, but we wanted to stick close to scripture, which we did. We told the whole story in 88 minutes, so it would hold kids’ attention from beginning to end. A lot of moms have said, “Thank God you made this movie because we tried to get our kids to sit through the DeMille version but it’s three and a half hours, the kids won’t do it!”

But when we came to The Flood, the running time is about the same, we made it more kid friendly, meaning there’s much more humor, talking animals, the animation level is better. All the way around, the movie is just a lot more commercial.

How is The Flood compared to The Ten Commandments in terms of budget?

Bond: It’s twice the budget.

Is Ben Kingsley back as the narrator, and Elliott Gould as God?

Bond: Yeah, that’s right.

Is that going to be consistent across all 12 films?

Bond: I certainly would love it to be. It depends on their availability. But I think I’ve got a real good shot, with that being the case. Sir Ben is just phenomenal to work with, he’s such a pro. He just brings so much to the process, to the movie; his voice just takes you to another place, his voice just has so much depth and he’s so profound. And Elliott, the reason we went with Elliott was because, as opposed to the stereotypical wrathful angry God that everybody wants to portray as the Old Testament God, we wanted to portray a loving God that is infinitely patient with us, but that, when we continually mess up, there are consequences when we cross boundary lines. [For more on the Noah’s Ark cartoon, click here.]

You mentioned financing. Have you got that money in hand already?

Bond: The money’s not banked, it’s just that we have very, very wealthy investors. A lot of them, particularly in Singapore, are the ones who came to us and said, “We’ll fund all your movies.” At the time we were only doing six, and they said, “Well, we’ll commit to funding them if you’ll do 12.” The whole group of people are Christians who believe in the power of media to influence hearts and minds, and really positively impact culture for the kingdom of God, and they believe wholeheartedly in ‘Epic Stories of the Bible’ as a way to influence kids.

The Ten Commandments was the first animated film I produced, the first for the whole group of us who did it [at Promenade]. We’re all of the same heart and mind, we all love the Lord, we all have the same objective in mind — to use these movies as a tool to get kids excited about the greatest stories ever told, starring the greatest superheroes who ever existed. That’s been our common goal and objective.

— A shorter version of this article was first published at Christianity Today Movies.

noah's ark the new beginning

promenade pictures

ten commandments 2007

Previous Post

February 12, 2008

Will Apatow's Year One be "biblical" after all...?

Next Post

February 12, 2008 Yet another image of the "crystal skull" ...

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Planet Articles BC Christian News BC Report Bible Movies Bible Review Blog Books & Culture Campus Times CBC Radio Christianity Today ChristianWeek Essays Faith Today Festival Cinemas Guide Film Journals Georgia Straight Interviews MB Herald National Catholic Register Salvationist Today's Christian Two Chairs Ubyssey Uncategorized Vancouver Courier Vancouver Sun

Select a Month August 2025 April 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 May 2024 February 2024 December 2023 May 2023 March 2023 November 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 January 2012 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 November 2003 October 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 March 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 January 2000 October 1999 August 1999 May 1999 April 1999 February 1999 January 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 August 1998 July 1998 June 1998 April 1998 March 1998 January 1998 November 1997 September 1997 July 1997 June 1997 April 1997 March 1997 February 1997 January 1997 December 1996 October 1996 September 1996 June 1996 March 1996 February 1996 January 1996 April 1995 November 1994 September 1994 September 1991

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Hosea's wife, whom he redeemed from slavery?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ruth Deborah Esther Gomer