Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt Movie Cancelled

As you may or may not know, I've been following Anne Rice's work since she became a Christian and began writing a trilogy on the life of Christ. Her first book, "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" is about His childhood, starting from when he lived in Egypt after fleeing Herod to His family's move back to Israel. This book has been slated to become a movie, scheduled to release next year, but the latest news is that the movie plans have now been cancelled.

Out of Egypt Scrapped
Barna's film company was to make Anne Rice's first Christian novel into a movie, but the project has been called off.
by Mark Moring
posted 08/28/07

The film project for Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt has been cancelled, Christianity Today Movies has learned.

The movie had been the most visible venture for Good News Holdings, a Christian entertainment company co-founded by George Barna in 2005.

Rice, author of Interview with a Vampire and other occult novels before converting to Christianity several years ago, told CT Movies that "we decided not to move forward" with the film or with Good News Holdings. She would not elaborate on the reasons.

GNH president and CEO Christopher Chisholm told CT Moves that "several things came up about Christ the Lord," including "creative differences" involving the "budget, director and talent." Chisholm said, "We had an amicable parting of ways, and we decided to release all our rights to Christ the Lord."

Chisholm added that "some people were worried that we were leading with a movie that was based on the Apocrypha." Rice's novel, the first of a series she is writing about Christ, focuses on Jesus at the age of 7, drawing from the Apocrypha and other noncanonical sources. The second book in the series, The Road to Cana, will be published in the spring of 2008.

"The rights to both books are available," Rice told CT Movies. "I hope some day we will see films based on these books. I'm in no rush, however, as I am at work on a third book in the series. But there is no more I can say about the situation with Good News Holdings."

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