The Young Messiah

This article is about the 2016 film. For the unrelated musical, see The Young Messiah (musical).

The Young Messiah
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCyrus Nowrasteh
Written by
  • Cyrus Nowrasteh
  • Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh[1]
Based onChrist the Lord: Out of Egypt
by Anne Rice
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJoel Ransom
Edited byGeoffrey Rowland
Music byJohn Debney
Production
companies
Distributed byFocus Features
Release date
  • March 11, 2016 (2016-03-11) (United States)
Running time
111 minutes[2]
CountriesUnited States
South Korea
LanguagesEnglish
Korean
Budget$18.5 million[3][4]
Box office$7.3 million[5]

The Young Messiah is a 2016 biblical drama film directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh and co-written by Betsy and Cyrus Nowrasteh, based on the novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice. The film stars Adam Greaves-Neal, Sean Bean, David Bradley, Lee Boardman, Jonathan Bailey, and David Burke. The film revolves around a fictional interpretation of a seven-year-old Jesus, who tries to discover the truth about his life when he returns to Nazareth from Egypt.

Nowrasteh acquired the film rights in 2011, and wrote the script along with his wife Betsy Giffen.[1] Chris Columbus developed the film through his 1492 Pictures banner and helped the film financing by Ocean Blue Entertainment. FilmDistrict acquired the US distribution rights in 2013, which were later transferred to Focus Features in 2014. Filming began on September 15, 2014, in Matera and Rome, Italy.

Although the film was known throughout production as Christ the Lord, Focus Features announced on September 1, 2015, that it would now be called The Young Messiah. Nowrasteh said in a press release, "This new title better conveys how our film seeks to present a realistic portrait of Jesus as a child both grounded in faith and consistent with the adult Jesus revealed in the Bible."[6]

The film was released on March 11, 2016, by Focus Features. Reviews were mixed, and the film proved to be a box office bomb, grossing only $7 million against a budget of $18.5 million.

  1. ^ a b John Anderson (March 11, 2016). "Here's Why Making The Young Messiah Was 'Fraught With Peril'". Time. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  2. ^ "AMC Theatres: The Young Messiah". AMC Theatres. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference CinemaScore was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Scott Mendelson (March 12, 2016). "Friday Box Office: '10 Cloverfield Lane' Adds $9M To Its Mystery Box, 'Brothers Grimsby' Bombs". Forbes. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
  5. ^ "The Young Messiah (2016)". The Numbers. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  6. ^ Chattaway, Peter T. (September 1, 2015). "First look: The Young Messiah, based on Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. (And yes, the film has a new title.)". patheos.com. Retrieved September 4, 2015.