Wonder Project’s upcoming biblical drama series, House of David, will premiere February 27 on Prime Video. Justin Rosenblatt, Wonder Project’s Head of Global Television, talks about the value of faith programming – in more ways than one.
Would you say faith is a genre of programming?
No, I would think about it differently. Faith is a value that is deeply meaningful to billions of people globally, and permeates their entire lives. And as such, it’s a theme that can be meaningfully imbued across any genre.
Faith is a value and virtue that matters in all aspects of people’s lives; it’s not placed in a specific box, only to be opened on Sunday mornings or when going to the cinema to see a “faith-based” film. The same could be said for storytelling—faith is a universal theme, one that can weave through any genre.
Why are SVODs expanding scripture and gospel content?
The success and global reach and buzz around shows like The Chosen and films like Jesus Revolution and Sound of Freedom caused the public to pay attention, not only from a metrics perspective, but also from a cultural standpoint. Media conglomerates and creatives alike very quickly recognized the insatiable appetite and loyal audience for this type of content they weren’t actively tapping into, so they started recalibrating to make it a bigger priority and/or initiative for their platform; inevitably, there could be opportunities for their current and future subscriber base.
But more than that, Hollywood looks for meaningful stories that are universal. And the Bible is quite literally a library of the most timeless and universal stories in our society. These stories matter deeply to a huge percentage of Americans, and those less interested likely have at least some degree of familiarity with the most famous ones.
Why are viewers drawn to inspirational storytelling?
Arguably, the entire point of storytelling is to inspire. To inspire reflection, empathy, or change. The most recent years have seen TV and films portray “life as it is”—perhaps beautiful at times, but often nasty, brutish, unfortunate and short—but storytelling has also always presented “life as it ought to or could be.” These kinds of stories catapult us out of the mundanity of our ordinary life and give us something to strive for or look forward to.
It’s always a balance between these two kinds of stories, and they aren’t mutually exclusive, but we can all tell that right now, people feel stressed, depressed, burned out, or scared. When that’s the case, do you want to watch something that makes you feel unsettled, cynical, or spiteful? Or do you want to feel uplifted and optimistic, finishing the episode or season with a different outlook, maybe even a reminder that despite life’s curveballs and setbacks – of which there are plenty – if you preserve and keep moving forward, things can and will likely get better over time.
