{"id":399,"date":"2012-01-16T14:19:45","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T21:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/?p=399"},"modified":"2012-01-16T14:19:45","modified_gmt":"2012-01-16T21:19:45","slug":"bh-interview-director-cyrus-nowrasteh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"BH Interview: Director Cyrus Nowrasteh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Director Cyrus Nowrasteh, Anne Rice Join Forces to Bring \u2018Christ the Lord\u2019 to the Big Screen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes it helps to get a rave review from the right person.
\nNovelist Anne Rice loved the haunting 2010 film \u201cThe Stoning of Soraya M.\u201d and asked her agent to see if he had seen the movie and, better yet, knew the filmmaker behind it \u2013 \u201cthe Path to 9\/11\u201d director Cyrus Nowrasteh.<\/p>\n

Turns out her agent also represented Nowrasteh, and a connection was made. Nowrasteh told the agent he\u2019d love to work with Rice some day, and soon the director had a copy of Rice\u2019s 2005 book \u201cChrist the Lord: Out of Egypt\u201d in hand.
\nA few conversations later, and both sides decided to bring \u201cChrist the Lord,\u201d the diligently researched account of Jesus\u2019 childhood, to the big screen.
\nWhat happened next is like the fast-forward version of modern movie making.
\n\u201cThe issue then became, \u2018how can we set this up as a movie? Where can we take this?\u201d he asks. \u201cI had had worked with 1492 Pictures before. They looked at it and responded enthusiastically.\u201d
\nTensions can often flare between authors and filmmakers, but Nowrasteh reports a fluid give-and-take between his creative team, which includes his co-screenwriter and wife Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh. and Rice.
\n\u201cOnce we had a draft that everyone was excited about, we kicked it back to her. We wanted her detailed input and participation,\u201d he says. \u201cWe felt a responsibility to her. We didn\u2019t want to go out with the script until she put her stamp on it.\u201d
\nIt certainly helped that Rice is no stranger to films inspired by her texts.
\n\u201cAnne understands the challenges inherent to adapting a novel to the screen,\u201d he says, referring to Rice-inspired productions like \u201cInterview with a Vampire\u201d and \u201cQueen of the Damned.\u201d
\n\u201cChrist the Lord,\u201d is currently in pre-production, is what Nowrasteh calls a \u201cwork of informed fiction.\u201d
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a great chapter at the end of the book where she talks about her sources, what she worked from,\u201d he says, including the New Testamanet, the Apocrypha and early legends pertaining to the life of Christ. \u201cIt\u2019s not as if she sat down and made a story. She really did her research.\u201d
\nThis won\u2019t be the first time Nowrasteh dealt with a religiously infused film. \u201cStoning\u201d dealt with a cruel interpretation of faith in which an Iranian woman is condemned to death for defying the will of her husband.
\n\u201cIt was a small miracle that that movie got made,\u201d the director recalls. \u201cIt was a territory where no one has gone before \u2026 something as barbaric and terrifying as stoning.\u201d
\nThe film earned its fair share of raves, but one critical reaction still wrankles Nowrasteh. The New York Times referred to the film\u2019s grueling final act as \u201ctorture porn.\u201d
\n\u201cI found that really offensive,\u201d he says, adding other critics contended the practice shown in the film is a thing of the past. Sadly, news of a fresh stoning case following the film\u2019s U.K. release proved that to be a lie.
\n\u201cIf anything, our movie confirmed a lot of the things that were happening in Iran,\u201d he says.
\nHe expects \u201cChrist the Lord\u201d to get a far different reception, and he hopes the film won\u2019t be pidgeonholed strictly as a \u201creligious\u201d film.
\n\u201cThis is a movie for religious poepe as well as for the masses,\u201d he says. We want this movie to appeal to as abroad an audience as possible \u2026 it\u2019s a beautiful story told with a great sort of understanding of the times and the period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read\u00a0Original\u00a0Article\u00a0on Big Hollywood Blog<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Cyrus Nowrasteh, Anne Rice Join Forces to Bring \u2018Christ the Lord\u2019 to the Big Screen
\nSometimes it helps to get a rave review from the right person.
\nNovelist Anne Rice loved …Continue readingBH Interview: Director Cyrus Nowrasteh<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cyrusnowrasteh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}