OK some of you may be asking who is Dallas Jenkins and why does
he need money now that supposedly he’s gone to a place where obscenely rich
people shop for obscenely rich things like gold covered stretch limos?
Dallas Jenkins is the creator behind one of the best bible
TV shows I have ever watched called “The Chosen” (and it isn’t just me,
audience score on Rotten Tomatoes puts it at a 99% fresh rating[i]
). According to Jenkins’ own telling he
had a shot at a standard Hollywood director career but then his big directorial
debut bombed at the box office. While
trying to recover from that professional earthquake he suddenly got a vision to
produce a TV show based on the gospels. He
then created a heartwarming Christmas short film for his local church here in
Illinois. The plot of the film featured
a downtrodden crippled shepherd suddenly leaping like a stag as the Heavenly
Hosts of Angels announced Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. Next thing you know VidAngel (now known as
Angel Studios) got out of the editing out of cuss words out of Quentin
Tarantino films and decided to get into the film business on their own. Since VidAngel studios were probably broke
after the copyright infringement lawsuits by the major movie studios, they
proposed Jenkins use that Christmas short film as a pilot for “The Chosen” and
get the initial season crowdfunded.
Jenkins had his doubts; but a lot of people believed in Jenkins’ way of
telling a biblical story to give him the #1 crowdfunded project of all
time. In fact, “The Chosen” is still
the #1 crowdfunded project of all time which, well, is as much of a blessing as
it is a curse for Dallas Jenkins at this moment.
On June 11th, 2023, Jenkins did one of his
YouTube videos talking about his epic TV creation. He’s probably done dozens of these videos for
YouTube talking about “The Chosen” explaining the goings on of the show,
details about production, mentioning various merchandise that you can buy at www.thechosengifts.com . Jenkins has prided himself on how open he is
with “The Chosen” fans and how personally connected he is with the show’s fan base,
which is necessary for his business model.
Theoretically if you really, really, really like Jenkins and what he is
doing you are more than willing fork over some significant cash to keep “The
Chosen” TV empire going. The video on June 11th, however,
was different. For you see, Jenkins had
to address some major controversies that had quickly blown up in his face. I’ll address these controversies in
descending order from least important to most important.
Controversy #1- The leaving of actor Yoshi Barriags under
mysterious circumstances.
Barriags as
St. Philip the Apostle was a beloved character on the show. He portrayed St. Philip with a sense of
subtle warmth and wisdom. Now, an actor
leaving a show isn’t new or even new for “The Chosen” either as three actors
have played the role of St. James the Greater, aka “Big James” on “The Chosen”
show. Still, there are a lot of fans who
are now attached to Barriags bringing to life their beloved St. Philip and I’m
sure there are a lot of fans out there who may be leaving the show now that
Jenkins was forced to let Barrigas go.
Controversy #2-The Gay Pride flag
Several weeks before the June
11th Jenkins YouTube livestream, Chris Durban & the behind the
scenes team at “The Chosen” put out an insider video for the making of “The
Chosen” season four on YouTube. Like
most “Chosen” fans many went all Pixary looking for easter eggs as to which
biblical scene Jenkins & company may be bringing to life on their way to
the 1st Easter. Sure enough
one eagle eyed fan at “The Daily Wire” [ii] noticed
something as brightly colored as an easter egg and particularly peculiar for biblical
tv show-a tiny 3” X 5” rainbow pride flag attached to a camera operator’s personal
equipment.
And the entire “Chosen”
online community exploded. Some
prominent evangelicals said Christians should boycott the show. Some of the main actors called the evangelical
protesting Christians homophobes for suggesting this gay-pride displaying
cameraman be fired. Dallas
Jenkins said
“(The Chosen is) not a church in which all of our employees
are going to fit under one particular mission statement, one particular belief
system,”
Jenkins went on to explain how a Christian would be offended
if they were barred from wearing their crosses/religious iconography (or
“Chosen” merch) in a particular setting. So, ipso-facto golden rule law means that
Dallas Jenkins in the spirit of true Christian generosity allowed his cameraman
to display that symbol of gay pride on his personal equipment. I get where Jenkins is coming from when he
states he doesn’t require everyone on the “The Chosen” to share his Evangelical
Christian beliefs or to even be a Christian.
Of course he wants the best of the best to bring his vision of the gospels
to TV life considering how most evangelical TV movies/shows seem to have a bad
reputation (See this video here https://youtu.be/50_3J6Go5Ng explaining why) If, as
many an art historian speculates preeminent Renaissance artist Michelangelo was
a known homosexual[iii]
then clearly Pope Julius II had no qualms hiring him to paint the preeminent
Christian Renaissance iconography on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. So, if that probably gay cameraman was the
same cameraman that pulled off a fourteen-minute single take tracking shot at
the beginning of “The Chosen” Season two episode 3 that had to be filmed as the
sun was setting so that cameraman’s shadow & camera weren’t in the shot
thereby breaking the illusion you’re in Roman occupied Syria circa 33 AD with
no extra chances of redoing then yeah, that cameraman’s the best of the best
and I hope he stays with the show for all 7 seasons. (Seriously, watch the episode on Peacock, it
really is a great shot or just wait until the week of Sept 10th to
see it on the CW).
Nonetheless, I can understand where some of those
Evangelical critical fans may be coming from.
After all Jenkins’ laissez-faire attitude towards his cast & crew’s
beliefs implies he himself is ok with the concept of homosexuality. Which also implies he’s ok with some people
clearly violating the laws of The Bible. Which the Evangelical Christian community
should rightfully disagree with especially if they want to take literately the
bible with the exceptions of MT 26:26-28; MK 14:22-25, LK 22:19,20 and JN 6:
25-Start of Chapter 7. So now Dallas
Jenkins may be doing the one thing that I feel most fans really care about.
Controversy #3- The Selling Out to Lionsgate
Weirdly enough this may be the most controversial of them
all even though the pride flag may have gotten more of the internet hype. I think it’s because Jenkins has always
prided himself on being an outsider of Hollywood Babylon and its corrupt movie
ways especially with how Hollywood does a biblical move nowadays.
I spent 2 hrs & 18 minutes of my precious time exposing
myself to a very bad example of modern Hollywood biblical moves- “Noah” from
2014 produced by Paramount Pictures.
This film stars big time movie star Russel Crowe as the titular
character along with other big time Hollywood co-stars like Jennifer Connelly
as Noah’s wife Naameh, Emma Watson as Noah’s daughter-in-law Ila and wife to
son Shem, and Anthony Hopkins as Noah’s grandfather Methuselah. Now the story of Noah’s ark is probably one
of the 1st bible stories kids are exposed to. It makes sense since it’s one of those easy-
to-understand tales a child can get; most people are bad, some like Noah are
good and God loves us enough to save us and here’s the toy ark with a bunch of
stuffed animals 😊.
Paramount pictures spent over $160 million to bring the story of Noah to
life. And what did they do to this simple biblical kiddie tale? Oh, completely wrecked it.
Paramount’s version of Noah’s flood story added these
rocklike transformers things that helped Noah build the ark and protect it
against the hordes of evil humans God was about to wipe off the face of the
earth. Then Noah refuses to help Ham
save his innocent girlfriend, thereby allowing her to die. Lastly, Noah gets it into his head that he
has to kill his unborn granddaughter that Ila’s pregnant with on the ark
shortly after she’s born so the entire human race can go extinct after Noah’s youngest
son Japheth dies (But Ila gives birth to twins thereby allowing the girls to
get raped by their uncles to continue the human race- yay?). Additionally, there is this awful dialogue
that all the actors recited. That
dialogue may have sounded appropriate if recited in a biblical epic from the
1950’s or 60’s, but in the 2010’s it was exaggerated and overly dramatic when
it didn’t need to be. Ultimately,
Paramount Pictures left the one thing out that you would think would be the #1
thing you have to have in a biblical epic-God.
Oh sure Crowe’s Noah refers to God as “The Creator” and Crowe retells
the beginning of Genesis. I suppose the trance like visions the movie Noah had
could be God talking to him. However,
our God is a personal God and I’m sure God deliberately spoke the Noah
commanding him to build this ark to save the animals and his family which
included a total of three daughters-in-law per Genesis because having sex with
your 1st cousin to perpetuate the human race is a little less creepy/yucky
than having sex with your uncle.
So, if this is how Hollywood is depicting biblical stories
nowadays it’s no wonder Jenkins & company wanted to get away from that
model.
Now, I at first was a bit reluctant to get on “The Chosen”
bandwagon back when it was just a crowdfunded show that premiered/aired through
its own app circa 2018/2019. It took an
unofficial imprimatur from Catholic YouTuber Bishop Robert Barron when he named
dropped “Chosen” star Jonathan Roumie who is the actor who portrays Jesus in
one of his videos before I checked the show out in 2020. Naturally I was hooked from episode one. Roumie is incredible as Jesus and all of the
actors that are his co-starts are great. I could go on and on about their
performances. But speaking of the
performers and why Dallas Jenkins needs lot of money now more than ever, by my
estimation there are about 30 or so principal actors/recurring characters on
“The Chosen”. Now the average salary
of a TV actor is $74,421[iv] but can range anywhere from about $49,407 to
$105,837 or maybe even less (Indeed.com put the figure closer to $25,244 but
I’m not sure if that is for all acting gigs including local dinner
theater). I’m pretty sure there’s a
sliding scale for the show as well. Maybe Aalok Metha and Anne Beyer get paid
by the hour for the 10 or so minutes they portray Barnaby & Shula a season.
Someone like Vanessa Benavente who portrays the Virgin Mother Mary may get
something more along the lines of special guest star pay since she becomes the
star of the one or two episodes the Virgin Mother makes an appearance in during
a “Chosen” season but maybe not a regular salary. Chances are Luke Dimyan who portrays Judas
Iscariot and Amber Shana Williams who portrays Tamar may be at the lower end of
the range since they are new to the show whereas Shahar Isaac who portrays St.
Peter and Elizabeth Tabish who portrays St. Mary Magdalene are at the higher
end of the scale since they have been with the show since season one episode
1. And for all I know someone may be
including whatever income Jonathan Roumie is making on his side hustle of
reading prayers & bible verses on the Hallow app for that upper pay
range. So, having established the
proper provisos for this calculation you take the average TV acting salary of
$74,421 X 30 or so principal actors and you have to come up with a minimum of
$2,184,680 for the acting budget alone.
And that’s just for one season and that’s not including such random
background actors such as “Fruit buyer #2”. Throw in an average of $2k-$5k for special
effects per minute for even minor shots like substituting in a stock video
image of the Sea of Galilee in place of the scrub-brush and dry prairie of
Midlothian Texas, and props & costumes and it’s no wonder Dallas Jenkins
realistically needs about $40 million a season just to do the production right
and he has about 4 seasons to go.
The problem Jenkins is facing now is that he is telling
something as epic as the movie “Noah” per season and Jenkins is still missing
that major studio backing like Paramount.
Wait, didn’t you just say that Lionsgate just bought “The
Chosen”.
To be accurate, Lionsgate bought the distribution rights to
“The Chosen”. Buying the distribution
rights is not the same thing as buying ultimate control of a TV show and I’m
not sure whatever Lionsgate paid Jenkins and 5 Loaves & 2 Fishes
productions is enough to cover production costs which I’m confused as to how TV
shows get/make in this modern streaming era.
Let’s look at another tv show, “Star Trek Discovery” which
probably does cost around $1.5 million to make per episode and streams
primarily on Paramount+ here in the US.
However, if, hypothetically, I didn’t feel like paying $9.99 a month for
Paramount+ just for the privilege if
watching “Star Trek Discovery” I may turn on my VPN, place my virtual location
somewhere in Australia and voilà , I’m
streaming “Star Trek Discovery” for the same price I’m paying Netflix to
binge-watch “Stranger Things” and perhaps ironically season one of “The
Chosen”. (Or at least I used to. See
this video clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czf-F6aIpMM explaining why I can’t anymore courtesy of
the rumor mill of Midnight’s Edge YouTube channel) How is this possible? Because Netflix bought the international
streaming rights to “Star Trek Discovery.”
Netflix buying the international streaming rights to “Star Trek
Discovery” may have helped pay the initial production costs, but Paramount/Viacom
CBS also had to put up some $ to make the show as well. In fact, per Midnight Edge’s rumor mill
Netflix balked at funding other 21st century Star Trek shows like
“Star Trek Piccard” and “Lower Decks” as well as additional seasons of “Star
Trek Discovery” because of lack of international viewership. At no point did Netflix dictate how Secret
Hideout/Paramount was supposed to write/direct “Star Trek Discovery” much to
the disappointment of Midnight’s edge.
Now, Lionsgate is not that major of a studio. More like a studio along the lines of Miramax
in the 1990’s, small but artsy and hopefully without a producer pervert keeping
the casting couch tradition alive in Hollywood. Sure, it can help, but Jenkins stills need
to come up with millions to produce the show on his own. In point of fact Jenkins’ recent letter to
the Screen Actors Guild stated that he/Lionsgate is not a major studio and was
an independent production. Meaning those 30 or so principal actors I cited in
the previous paragraph are walking to their marks on the set from their
trailers in costume and makeup whereas most of their fellow SAG actors are
walking the picket lines in ripped denim and SAG/AFTA T-shirts because “The Chosen” is not backed by a major
studio. I’m not sure if Jenkins is getting income from
the commercials that air on YouTube before, during, or after one of his YouTube
livestreams. I’m not sure what percent
of my Netflix monthly subscription fee would go to Jenkins if I chose to watch
“The Chosen” on Netflix. I’m not sure
if he’ll get the commercial revenue from the CW now that “The Chosen” has gone
the more traditional TV show broadcasting route (Does anyone sit down and watch
any broadcasting network on a routine basis?) because I’m pretty sure Jenkins
had to, no pun intended, sign over the lion’s share to Lionsgate of those ad rights. I just know that Jenkins needs about $160
million dollars for the next four years to bring the show to the conclusion it
deserves and those who loved the show may be reluctant to now put up the cash
Jenkins still needs because they don’t think he still needs because he’s now
got some minor film studio agreeing to promote the reruns of “The Chosen” to
various places.
So please 1. Watch the show. It is currently airing on the
CW every Sunday night or you can find it on Roku, Amazon Fire, or stream on Netflix,
Peacock, Angel Studios, and it’s still
its own app in the Google/Apple app store where you can get some bonus content.
2.If you’re hooked on it as I am just
maybe pay it forward about $25 (tax deductible if you go www.comeandsee.netroute or pay it forward on the Angel
Studios app). 3. Share, like etc. so it can go to more homes out there for
people who may be bored with the run of the mill drama or reality TV show and
too broke to go to some hackney blockbuster this summer. Heck, share like etc. with your Facebook
friends even if you don’t like the show because maybe one of them will. I’m hoping my 50 or so Facebook Friends tell
their 50 or so Facebook friends who in turn will tell 50 or more of their
Facebook friends onward etc. and in turn give Jenkins and the show $25 each. Maybe
we’ll get the $160 million or so Jenkins needs to continue to make this
show. Because I really do not want to
see it cancelled because of lack of funding.
