Entertainment giant Netflix will make Narnia movies and a TV series, and a US show about God wanting to be Facebook friends will air soon in Australia.
Seems God and faith-based content is so hot right now on screens.
Netflix this week announced it bought the rights to all the Narnia stories by C.S. Lewis, and will soon convert them into a series and films.
Coming soon to Channel 7 is God Friended Me, a CBS programme it describes as an “uplifting drama about an outspoken atheist whose life is turned upside down when he receives a friend request on social media from God, and unwittingly becomes an agent of change in the lives and destinies of others around him.”
Yes, it’s an everyday story.
Perhaps it’s a coincidence that God seems to be cropping up a lot on our screens. Or perhaps there is a higher power at work than Netflix’s content managers.
Already this year, Netflix released its provocative movie Come Sunday about the life of Carlton Pearson, a controversial Pentecostal minister ostracised by his church for preaching that “because of Christ, no soul will spend eternity in hell”.
Recently launched was the third season of afterlife comedy The Good Place, a spin on heaven, hell, and the powers which control them.
If you dig a bit deeper through shows from the past few years on Netflix, you can also find The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, released in 2016 and running over two seasons. Then there’s A.D. Kingdom and Empire, a 2015 series that follows the story of Jesus’ disciples following his death. And, upon further investigation – at number 189 on IMDb’s “Top Rated TV Shows” list – you will find Jesus of Nazareth, a TV mini-series from 1977.