The Sons of Hercules is a syndicated Embassy Pictures television show that aired in the United States in the 1960s. The series repackaged 13 Italian sword-and-sandal films by giving them a standardized theme song for the opening and closing titles, as well as a standard introductory narration attempting to relate the lead character in each film to the Greek demigod Hercules. These films however were not all originally made as "Hercules" films in Italy. Although two of them did originally feature Hercules, four of the films were originally Maciste movies in Italy, and the others were just isolated gladiator or mythological hero movies not released theatrically in the US.
Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum, is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as Samson and Delilah (1949), Quo Vadis (1951), The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), and Cleopatra (1963). These films dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by spaghetti Western and Eurospy films.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is a novel by Lew Wallace, published by Harper and Brothers on November 12, 1880, and considered "the most influential Christian book of the nineteenth century". It became a best-selling American novel, surpassing Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) in sales. The book also inspired other novels with biblical settings and was adapted for the stage and motion picture productions.
King of Kings is a 1961 American epic religious film directed by Nicholas Ray and produced by Samuel Bronston for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Adapted from the New Testament, the film tells the story of Jesus of Nazareth from his birth and ministry to his crucifixion and resurrection. It stars Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus, with Siobhán McKenna, Robert Ryan, Viveca Lindfors, Ron Randell, Hurd Hatfield, and Rip Torn and is narrated by Orson Welles.
Stories from the Bible have frequently been used in films. There are various reasons for motion picture producers to turn to the Bible as source material. The stories, in the public domain, are already familiar to potential audiences. They contain sweeping, but relatively straightforward, narratives of good versus evil, and feature crowd-pleasing battles, sword fights, natural disasters, and miracles.
Barabbas is a 1961 religious epic film directed by Richard Fleischer for Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica, expanding on the life of Barabbas, from the Christian Passion narrative in the Gospel of Mark and other gospels. It stars Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Harry Andrews, Ernest Borgnine, Vittorio Gassman, and Jack Palance. The screenplay is based on Nobel Prize-winner Pär Lagerkvist's 1950 novel of the same title.
The Flying House, known in Japan as Tondera Hausu no Daibōken, is a Christian anime television series produced by Tatsunoko Productions broadcast between April 1982 and March 1983 on TV Tokyo, and distributed by the Christian Broadcasting Network in the United States. In 2010, the Christian Broadcasting Network made the 52 episodes available for viewing online.
Sight & Sound Theatres is an entertainment company that produces Bible stories live on stage. Based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Sight & Sound operates two theaters: one in Ronks, Pennsylvania and the second in Branson, Missouri. Each year, more than a million people from around the world attend performances at the theatres. It has been a major tourist attraction of Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, and is considered the largest faith-based theater company in the nation.
Jesus is a 1999 Italian-American biblical historical drama television miniseries that retells the historical events of Jesus Christ. It was shot in Morocco and Malta. It stars Jeremy Sisto as the titular character, Jacqueline Bisset as Mary of Nazareth, Debra Messing as Mary Magdalene and Gary Oldman as Pontius Pilate. The miniseries was broadcast in Italy in two parts on December 5 and 6, 1999 before being broadcast in the United States on May 14 and 15, 2000.
The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible is an animated direct-to-video film series produced by Hanna-Barbera that tells of three young adventurers who travel back in time to watch biblical events take place. Thirteen videos were released between 1985 and 1992.
Rabbit Ears Productions is a production company best known for producing three television series that feature individual episodes adapting popular pieces of children's literature. Rabbit Ears episodes have been released on home video, broadcast on Showtime, and rerun on PBS. The series features actors, such as Robin Williams, Raul Julia, Laura Dern, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, John Hurt, Danny Glover and others narrating children's books that are either well known in the United States or around the world. The series made use of a limited animation technique whereby still images are moved throughout the scene, similar to modern motion comics. Rabbit Ears Productions has also won numerous awards, including Parents' Choice Awards and Grammy Awards.
In the Beginning: The Bible Stories is a Japanese-Italian anime television series based on The Bible's Hebrew Scriptures created by Osamu Tezuka. The series was a coproduction between Japan's Nippon TV, Tezuka's Tezuka Productions, and Italy's government-owned broadcaster, Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI). Although the series was in production during a period of several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was not aired in Japan until 1997, on the satellite channel WOWOW, while it premiered in Italy in 1992 on Rai 1. The series has also been aired on TV in the United States, Spain, Germany, and Australia.
Bugtime Adventures is an American children's animated series that began airing in 2003. 13 episodes were produced, to air on Christian TV stations like TBN. The entire series is also available on DVD.
VeggieTales is an American Christian CGI-animated series and franchise for children created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki under Big Idea Entertainment. The series stars Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber leading a variety of fruit and vegetable characters as they retell stories from the Bible and parody pop culture while also teaching life lessons according to a biblical world view.
Charles Edward Sellier Jr. was an American television producer, screenwriter, novelist and director, best known for creating the American book and television series The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams. He was also known for directing the notorious Christmas themed slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night He also wrote and produced more than thirty films and 230 television shows during his career, which spanned four decades.
The Bible is a television miniseries based on the Bible. It was produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett and was broadcast weekly between March 3 and 31, 2013 on History channel. It has since been adapted for release to theaters as a feature film, the 2014 American epic biblical drama Son of God.
