Corona | Coming Attractions

Deadline Hollywood's Mike Fleming has been scooping out exclusives faster than a fat kid eating their breakfast cereal. Today the ex-Variety reporter has it on good faith that a live-action telling of the Book of Genesis, specifically the act of Creation and the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. No matter what your faith is (or isn't), put aside that for a moment and consider this idea from a pure cinematic viewpoint: the act of Creation, told with today's special effects. And in 3-D.

The movie is called In the Beginning and is being shaped by Paramount Pictures and Cary Granat, the former Walden Media executive that brought together The Chronicles of Narnia for his former employer. According to Fleming the script for In the Beginning is being written by Hidalgo screenwriter John Fusco. Paramount's lined up television director David Cunningham to make his feature debut.

Here's where the potential for disappointment begins: the budget for In the Beginning is only marked for $30 million shekels -- not a lot for what could be an ambitious project in terms of effects and especially one that will use 3-D cameras to capture the live action, thus elevating the cost of production.

Fleming also reports that test footage is to shortly be seen by the Paramount execs. This test footage is being assembled by Reel FX, the Santa Monica company that did the CG animation for Open Season 2. If Paramount likes what they see, they'll greenlight the project and also pay half of the film's budget.

Religious themed films can be a dicey risk for Hollywood to take, but if they come up a winner, the rewards are big. Go ask Mel Gibson how he did with The Passion of the Christ.