A new Bible-based series is coming to Amazon Prime Video, with some big names behind it.
Amazon MGM Studios announced this week it has entered into an agreement with the new faith-based, values-driven movie studio The Wonder Project and has ordered a new Bible-based series, House of David, for Prime Video. The Wonder Project was co-founded by director Jon Erwin (I Can Only Imagine, Jesus Revolution) and former Netflix and YouTube executive Kelly Merryman Hoogstraten. Dallas Jenkins, the creator and director of The Chosen, is an advisor for The Wonder Project.
House of David, according to a synopsis given to The Hollywood Reporter, “follows the once-mighty King Saul as he falls victim to his own pride.”
“A prophet prepares to overthrow him -- anointing the outcast shepherd boy David as a second king,” the summary said. “As Saul’s fury grows, David navigates love, violence, and politics in the court of the man he’s destined to replace. Two kings. One Kingdom. The outcome is war.”
Erwin will serve as an executive producer. Nomadic Pictures, Kingdom Story Company, and Lionsgate Television will produce it. Kingdom Story is the same company that produced I Can Only Imagine and Jesus Revolution.
“When we met with Jon, Kelly, and Dallas, their clear and passionate vision for The Wonder Project and their ambition to nurture universal stories of love, triumph, and spirituality moved us,” Vernon Sanders, head of TV for Amazon MGM Studios, said in a statement. “We are very excited about the scope, scale, and storytelling involved with House of David and look forward to sharing this epic and many others with our global Prime Video customers.”
Erwin previously told Christian Headlines that The Wonder Project will “make stories that restore faith in things worth believing in.”
“We're living in a very cynical world where it's tough to know what to believe in,” Erwin said. “And if you watch a lot of popular shows but also movies, you find yourself in a me-versus-everyone mindset, where it's hard to know what to believe in. And so we [want to create] content that restores faith in things that are worth it. … Christianity is life-changing for me and 2.5 billion people.”
Said Merryman Hoogstraten, “We’ve been blown away by Amazon’s commitment to help us do this -- both through the significant resources they are dedicating and their trust in us to tell these stories authentically to our audience.”
Related: Jon Erwin: New Faith-Based Studio Is a ‘Declaration of Independence’ for Christian Filmmakers
Photo Courtesy: PR Kit. Used with permission.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
