Screen shot from the trailer for Bekmambetov’s Ben-Hur (2016)
The extreme
profitability of Mel Gibson’s The Passion
of the Christ in 2004 came as a great surprise to the Hollywood
establishment, particularly considering its failure to find production funding
through a major studio. Since this time,
the big-budget mainstream biblical epic, long thought dead in terms of
widespread marketability, has become a viable Hollywood studio product with
regards to seeking both profits and critical acclaim, as well as outlets for
auteurist ‘passion projects’ such as Gibson’s film, Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014), and Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings. With this year seeing two new fiction films
featuring depictions of Jesus, the crucifixion, and resurrection [Risen (dir. Kevin Reynolds) and Ben-Hur (dir. Timur Bekmambetov)],
academic consideration of the modern biblical epic is both timely and highly
relevant.
This
is a preliminary call for papers and proposals for an edited collection using a
broad range of approaches in the analysis of these films and this phenomenon
specifically. Proposals can address, but
are not limited to:
-
Stylistic and narrative analysis
-
Considerations of genre
-
Historical and political contexts
-
Industrial efforts to capitalise on this trend
(see the short-lived Fox Faith studios in the mid 2000s and its products)
-
Critical viability and acceptance
-
Intersections of, or discord between, faith and
fandom
-
Representations of race and gender
-
Auteurist analyses of these films
-
Philosophical and more broadly theoretical
approaches to these films and this trend.
Proposals and abstracts of approximately 300 words with a short
bio can be submitted to Wickham Clayton by 31 August, at wickscripts@hotmail.com . Also feel free to email for expressions of
interest and questions regarding the project.
