”Momentarily, I think he thought I'd lost my mind,” Downey recalled. “He went out on his bicycle and he prayed on it and he came back and said, 'You know what, I think it's a good idea. I think we should do it together.' We shook hands and haven't looked back.”
The series debuts on History Sunday at 8 p.m. EST, the first of five two-hour chunks that will air each weekend. The finale airs on Easter Sunday.
Different stories in the Bible have been Hollywood fodder for years. Burnett, the prolific producer behind “Survivor” and “The Voice,” said no one had tried to tie it all together and use modern computer graphics to bring images like Moses parting the Red Sea to life on screen.
Instead of being all-encompassing, they tried to concentrate on stories in depth and on characters who would emotionally engage the audience. The first episode illustrates the wisdom of that approach: It flounders at the start with a discussion about the world's creation but becomes more gripping when the emphasis turns to the lives of Abraham and Moses.
Burnett said he believes there's a growing “Biblical illiteracy” among young people.
”It's like saying you never heard of Macbeth or King Lear,” he said. “In school, you have to know a certain amount of Shakespeare, but no Bible. So there's got to be a way to look at it from a pure literature point of view. If it wasn't for the Bible, arguably Shakespeare wouldn't have written those stories.”
◼ WHICH HOLLYWOOD POWER COUPLE PENNED THIS SURPRISING OP-ED: ‘WHY PUBLIC SCHOOLS SHOULD TEACH THE BIBLE’?
On Thursday, famed reality show producer Mark Burnett (“The Voice” and “Survivor”) and his wife, actress Roma Downey (“Touched by an Angel”) penned an eye-grabbing op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Why Public Schools Should Teach the Bible.” True to its title, Burnett and Downey make the case that America’s children should be taught the holy book’s ins and outs in classrooms across the nation.
Referring to the Bible as “the most read, most influential book of all time,” the two pointed out the cultural value that the document has to Western civilization. In addition to highlighting the fact that many common phrases used in everyday language have roots in the Bible, the couple noted the that it has very literally shaped modern-day literature, entertainment and the culture at large.
