{"id":74055,"date":"2024-05-21T17:16:47","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T00:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=74055"},"modified":"2024-05-21T17:17:57","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T00:17:57","slug":"oscar-isaac-forest-whitaker-join-animated-jesus-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2024\/05\/oscar-isaac-forest-whitaker-join-animated-jesus-movie.html","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker join animated Jesus movie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a>
Jesus washes Peter\u2019s feet in The King of Kings<\/i>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>The voice cast for\u00a0The King of Kings<\/b><\/em>, the animated adaptation of Charles Dickens\u2019\u00a0The Life of Our Lord<\/em>, keeps growing.<\/p>\n
The Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/em>\u00a0says Oscar Isaac and Forest Whitaker are providing the voices of Jesus and Peter, respectively, in the film, which is currently being produced by the South Korean studio Mofac Animation.<\/p>\n
Isaac and Whitaker are the first actors to be announced for biblical roles in the film. The studio previously\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0that Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, and Roman Griffin Davis are playing Dickens, his wife, and their son, in a story that dramatizes not just the life of Jesus but the way Dickens told the story to his children.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, Isaac and Whitaker both already have a bit of Bible-movie experience; more specifically, they both have\u00a0Nativity<\/em>-movie experience.<\/p>\n
Isaac played Joseph in 2006\u2019s\u00a0The Nativity Story<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(you can read my interview with him about that film\u00a0here<\/a>), and Whitaker played Reverend Cobbs in 2013\u2019s\u00a0Black Nativity<\/a><\/em>, a loose adaptation of Langston Hughes\u2019 musical version of the Christmas story.<\/p>\n
Both actors have also been in\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0movies (Isaac in the sequel trilogy, Whitaker in\u00a0Rogue One<\/em>), so they also both appear in my round-up of\u00a0Star Wars<\/a><\/em>\u00a0actors who have been in Bible movies<\/a>. Looks like I might need to update that post soon!<\/p>\n
The casting of these two actors ties into a few other patterns in Bible films:<\/p>\n
\nIsaac will be at least the second actor to play both Joseph and Jesus, following Alessandro Gassman, who played the adult Jesus in 1987\u2019s\u00a0A Child Called Jesus<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and then played Joseph in 2006\u2019s\u00a0The Holy Family<\/a><\/em>. Another actor who was\u00a0cast<\/em>\u00a0as both characters, though he only actually\u00a0played<\/em>\u00a0one of them in the end, is Diogo Morgado, who was\u00a0cast as Joseph<\/a>\u00a0in a movie about Mary that\u00a0was never filmed in the end<\/a>,\u00a0and then\u00a0played Jesus<\/a>\u00a0in 2013\u2019s\u00a0The Bible<\/a><\/em>\u00a0miniseries.<\/li>\nIsaac is currently 45 years old, which would make him part of the current wave of actors who have played Jesus\u00a0in their 40s or even 50s<\/a>. (The biblical Jesus was only \u201cabout thirty\u201d when he started his ministry, according to Luke 3:23.)<\/li>\nIsaac is also one of a growing list of Latino or Iberian actors who have been cast as Jesus, following Morgado (Portuguese),\u00a0Juan Pablo di Pace<\/a>\u00a0(2015\u2019s\u00a0A.D. The Bible Continues<\/a><\/em>, Argentinian),\u00a0Jencarlos Canela<\/a>\u00a0(2016\u2019s\u00a0The Passion: New Orleans<\/a><\/em>, Cuban-American),\u00a0Rodrigo Santoro<\/a>\u00a0(2016\u2019s\u00a0Ben-Hur<\/a><\/em>, Brazilian), etc.<\/li>\nAnd Whitaker is one of a few actors of colour who have been cast as Peter recently, following Alexis Rodney (2015\u2019s\u00a0Killing Jesus<\/a><\/em>),\u00a0Chiwetel Ejiofor<\/a>\u00a0(2018\u2019s\u00a0Mary Magdalene<\/a><\/em>), and Jacobi Howard (2023\u2019s\u00a0The Book of Clarence<\/a><\/em>\u2014although, in that last film, nearly\u00a0everyone<\/em>\u00a0is played by an actor of colour, so of course Peter is too).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n***
**
***Granted, the age and ethnicity of the actors is less relevant in animation, where the characters look however the animators want them to look. But still.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, I recently learned that this film has a\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0with lots of pictures, etc. This is how the longer version of the film\u2019s\u00a0synopsis<\/a>\u00a0begins, there:<\/p>\n
"
Charles Dickens was a master storyteller whose words have touched the world for many years. Prolific talent such as his comes at a price however, and while Dickens was a loving father, his work often kept him distant from his family. In particular he struggled to connect with his youngest son Walter, a five-year-old dreamer. Inseparable from his best friend Willa the cat, Walter lives in his own imagination and sees the world in a unique way.<\/p>\n
One day, Dickens\u2019 reading performance at a London theatre is ruined by Walter\u2019s mischievous behavior. Dickens pleads to his son to try and enjoy the reading but Walter is not interested. Walter being completely obsessed with King Arthur, Catherine urges Dickens to tell his son the story of the true king.<\/p>\n
He will create a story not for the world but just for his family, especially Walter. He will tell the story that means everything to him, the story of Jesus Christ, the greatest story ever told. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Finally, here is a bit of footage from the film that was posted to the studio\u2019s YouTube channel back in April:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WqZrZeM58o0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Interestingly, both actors have Nativity-movie experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":74058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6570,261,345,3153,6567,1527],"class_list":["post-74055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-charles-dickens","tag-forest-whitaker","tag-jesus","tag-kenneth-branagh","tag-king-of-kings-2024","tag-oscar-isaac"],"yoast_head":"\nOscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker join animated Jesus movie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Interestingly, both actors have Nativity-movie experience.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2024\/05\/oscar-isaac-forest-whitaker-join-animated-jesus-movie.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker join animated Jesus movie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Interestingly, both actors have Nativity-movie experience.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2024\/05\/oscar-isaac-forest-whitaker-join-animated-jesus-movie.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-22T00:16:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-22T00:17:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2024\/05\/kingofkings2024-jesuswashespetersfeet-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"428\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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