Film · 2016

Christ The Lord

The childhood of Jesus as told by Anne Rice, sculpted by Creation Art, lived between Cinecittà and the Sassi of Matera.

Story

Act one

The author of vampires
returns to Jesus.

"I did research on the First Century for about ten years, scouring history, archaeology, anthropology and the Bible… I tried to write a biblically grounded and authentic novel about Jesus as a child, that would make him live for the reader."

— Anne Rice
author's note, "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt", 2005.

Anne Rice became famous in 1976 with "Interview with the Vampire": decades of gothic novels, blood and immortality. Then, in 1998, after a diabetic coma, she returned to the Catholic faith of her childhood. She decided to stop writing vampires: "from now on my characters will be Christ and his people". She began a decade of First-Century study, and in 2005 published the first of three planned novels on the life of Jesus: "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt", based on the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

It is that book that ten years later becomes "The Young Messiah": directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, produced by 1492 Pictures of Chris Columbus (the same man behind Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter films), with a cast featuring Sean Bean as the centurion Severus and seven-year-old Adam Greaves-Neal in the role of Jesus. Shooting began on 15 September 2014: first Matera, then Cinecittà.

Sara Lazzaro as the Virgin Mary embraces the child Jesus in an alley of the Sassi of Matera, pale stone walls and other villagers in the background — Mary and Jesus among the Sassi of Matera

The child Jesus touches the face of an elderly doctor of the Law in the Temple. In the soft-focus foreground, a ceremonial shield with the Star of David — Jesus at the Temple, twelve years old

Sean Bean as the Roman centurion Severus, crested bronze helmet, red cloak, beside a hooded figure. Ancient stone walls in the background — Sean Bean as the centurion Severus

Act two

2014:
Cabiria and Jesus
in the same workshop.

For Creation Art, 2014 is a double year. On 24 July Cinecittà World opens to the public, and among the first works on view is our Cabiria portal — the monumental gateway façade of the park, built in the preceding months. On 15 September, just a few weeks after the park opens, shooting begins on the Sassi of Matera for The Young Messiah. The photos from our archive of those months tell two parallel construction sites: cinematic scenography in fibreglass for the biblical film, and theme-park scenography for Cinecittà World.

The craft is the same: plasterer-sculptors shaping large volumes of expanded polystyrene and then coating them with plaster, fibre-reinforced mortars, faux stone, painted lapis lazuli. Only the destination changes: a set lasting three weeks at Cinecittà — the Temple of Jerusalem with its lapis-and-gold columns, the ancient wooden Eastern doors, the monumental arches — or a façade that will stay in the park for the next twenty years. For those who sculpt, however, the technique does not change: faux stone has to fool the eye.

Temple of Jerusalem set under construction: columns in golden faux stone, blue lapis-lazuli friezes, classical capitals, paving in white and blue bands. Cinecittà worksite with red-and-white safety tape and scaffolding — The lapis-lazuli Temple, still a construction site

Temple detail: a pair of columns painted in faux lapis lazuli with classical gold-leaf capitals, faux-stone balustrade carved with geometric motifs — Lapis-lazuli columns and gold capitals

A blue wooden door with metal studs, geometric ornamental bands, set inside a faux-stone jamb with a triangular pediment. Set of an ancient Eastern house — The door of a Judaean house

Behind the scenes

Between the Sassi and the Studios.
Fibreglass that travels.

First-Century film scenography is not improvised: it has to be sculpted to the camera and transportable wherever needed. For The Young Messiah we worked in our workshop sheds between August and October 2014, and delivered two kinds of set: one for the exterior shoots in Matera, where the Sassi stand in for Nazareth and Galilee, and one for the monumental interiors rebuilt at Cinecittà Studios — the Temple of Jerusalem, the houses of the Pharisees, the Roman courtyards. Materials: fibreglass for the parts that travel, polystyrene + fibre-reinforced mortar for the fixed monumental parts.

Temple set under construction at Cinecittà: faux-stone balustrade with small columns, simulated-marble classical columns, tiled roof, two workers in the foreground plastering the base with fresh mortar — The Temple of Jerusalem under construction, Cinecittà, autumn 2014.

The ancient doors

The doors of Nazareth are the first pieces to leave the shed: antiqued wood with bronze studs, geometric ornamental bands typical of First-Century Judaean-Eastern furnishings, jambs sculpted in faux stone with triangular pediments. The doors are trucked to Matera, where they fit into the natural walls of the Sassi as if they had always been there. This is the difference between a set that has been "reconstructed" and one that is "believable".

The lapis-lazuli Temple

The key scene of the film — the seven-year-old Jesus talking with the doctors of the Law at the Temple — could not be shot in Matera: it needed monumental architecture. The Temple of Jerusalem is rebuilt on a soundstage at Cinecittà: spiral columns painted in lapis lazuli, gold-leaf capitals, paving in white and blue bands, continuous friezes on the walls. For those who sculpt it is not the first Temple of 2010s Cinecittà: it is a chain Creation Art knows well.

The Roman courtyard

For the scenes along the Roman road in Egypt, and for the centurions' interrogations, a porticoed courtyard is built in Roman-provincial style: Corinthian faux-stone columns, crenellated walls, sandy paving, wooden balconies. It is a transit set, populated with carts laden with straw and real animals. When the camera arrives, Sean Bean walks through it in lorica and red cloak, as the centurion Severus.

2014 the year of the double commission · Cabiria + Christ The Lord

10 years of research by Anne Rice before the novel (1995–2005)

$18.5M production budget · Focus Features (USA)

Wide-angle view of an exterior courtyard in Roman-provincial style built at Cinecittà: crenellated walls, colonnaded portico, wooden cart loaded with straw with a live sheep beside it, stone steps — **The Roman-provincial courtyard.** Transit set built on the soundstage, complete with cart and animals, ready for the camera.

Close-up of an antique blue wooden door with geometric metal-stud detailing: green-patina bronze handle, lozenge-pattern ornamental bands — **The door detail.** Bronze studs, lozenge bands and hand-applied oxidation patina on antiqued wood.

Monumental Temple arch in faux stone with classical pediment, between walls banded in white marble with blue lapis-lazuli stripes. Worksite with red-and-white safety tape and a worker walking in the background — **The Temple arch.** Marble-banded walls with lapis-lazuli inserts: the chromatic signature of the twelve-year-old Jesus scene.

Set of an ancient house built on the soundstage: sculpted rocky walls, a double-leaf wooden door, a decorated niche, a geometric mosaic on the floor — A house in Nazareth, rebuilt for the interiors at Cinecittà.

A wooden door with studs and bronze-finished ornamental bands, set within a faux-stone jamb with a triangular pediment, propped outside the workshop. Ancient Eastern style. — The door, outside the workshop

The family of Mary and the child Jesus, accompanied by Joseph, surrounded by Roman soldiers in red tunics. In the background a faux-stone portal with hanging perforated metal lanterns. Interrogation scene at the Temple. — The same passage in the film

Panoramic view of the Temple of Jerusalem rebuilt at Cinecittà: spiral classical columns, monumental architecture, the child Jesus at the centre of the scene next to an elderly doctor of the Law. — The Temple of Jerusalem, full view

This is really a film about a family. We take you inside the Holy Family.

Cyrus Nowrasteh, director EWTN · 10 December 2015

Tech sheet

2014, the year of the double commission

In 2014 we worked in parallel on two construction sites that, seen from outside, would seem incompatible. The first: the Cabiria portal of Cinecittà World, inaugurated on 24 July. The second: the biblical scenography of The Young Messiah, whose shoot began in Matera on 15 September. The same workshop, the same team, the same faux-stone technique: only the destination of the finished pieces changed. 2014 is one of the few years in our history when two large commissions from different sectors coexisted in the same six months.

Ten years of research

Anne Rice — author of Interview with the Vampire (1976) — returned to the Catholic faith in 1998 after a diabetic coma. She decided to devote her new novels to Christ. Before writing "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" (2005) she spent ten years studying the First Century: history, archaeology, anthropology, apocryphal texts. The novel is the first in the trilogy Rice intended to dedicate to the life of Jesus. "Kingdom of Heaven", the third volume, would remain unfinished: the author died in 2021.

One hundred and eleven minutes, two locations

The Young Messiah runs 111 minutes. Shooting took place between Matera (Sassi, September–October 2014) and Cinecittà (monumental interiors, October–November). The film opened in the United States on 11 March 2016, distributed by Focus Features. The choice of the Sassi of Matera follows the international tradition of biblical cinema consecrated by Pier Paolo Pasolini with The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) and taken up by Mel Gibson with The Passion of the Christ (2004) — films that had restored to the Lucanian city its status as "the Jerusalem of cinema".

$18.5 million budget

The film has a production budget of $18.5 million, financed by 1492 Pictures (the production company of Chris Columbus, director of Home Alone and of the first two Harry Potter films), Ocean Blue Entertainment, CJ Entertainment and Hyde Park International. At the worldwide box office it grossed around $7.3 million: a niche film, distributed mainly through the American faith-based circuit, but one that required a top-tier production machine in Italy — and scenography of auteur cinematic quality.

All production data

Type: Feature film · biblical / dramatic
International title: The Young Messiah
Based on: "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" by Anne Rice (Knopf, 2005)
Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh
Screenplay: Cyrus Nowrasteh and Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh
Main cast: Adam Greaves-Neal (the child Jesus) · Sean Bean (centurion Severus) · Sara Lazzaro (Mary) · Vincent Walsh (Joseph) · David Bradley · Jonathan Bailey · Christian McKay · Isabelle Adriani
Production: 1492 Pictures (Chris Columbus · Michael Barnathan · Mark Radcliffe) · Ocean Blue Entertainment · CJ Entertainment · Hyde Park International
US distribution: Focus Features · 11 March 2016
Runtime: 111 minutes
Budget: $18.5 million
Worldwide box office: ~$7.3 million
Shoot start: 15 September 2014, Matera
Locations: Matera (Sassi · Basilicata, exteriors) · Cinecittà Studios, Rome (monumental interiors)
Our role: Production of cinematic scenography in fibreglass, polystyrene + fibre-reinforced mortar and antiqued wood: doors of Judaean houses for the Matera exteriors, reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem on the Cinecittà soundstages (lapis-lazuli columns, gold-leaf capitals, monumental arches, banded paving), Roman-provincial courtyards, a Nazareth house in rocky stone.
Matera local tradition: Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) · Mel Gibson, The Passion of the Christ (2004) · Catherine Hardwicke, The Nativity Story (2006)
Parallel Creation Art year: 2014: the same year as the Cabiria portal of Cinecittà World (24 July 2014)
Second life: Set dismantled after shooting · some Egyptian and provincial sculptures kept in our workshops for later reuse on other biblical-Eastern period films

Second life

Egypt in Matera,
then away.

The set of Christ The Lord — The Young Messiah by Cyrus Nowrasteh was shot in Matera in 2014 — the city of the Sassi that has hosted Italian biblical and historical-Eastern films for decades: from Pasolini's Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) to Gibson's Passion of the Christ (2004) to Hardwicke's The Nativity Story (2006). Our reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem with the lapis lazuli and the gold leaf, of the Roman-provincial courtyards, of the Nazareth house in rocky stone has entered that local tradition.

After shooting the set was dismantled — that is the rule of cinema. Some of the more finely worked sculptures (capitals, friezes, monumental arches, details in faux gold leaf) returned to our workshops as a biblical-Eastern scenography archive. The grammar of five-century patination comes back every time a period film calls for ancient material credibility.

Christ The Lord is from 2014 — the same year as our Cabiria Portal at the entrance to Cinecittà World. Two large commissions in parallel, two different architectural grammars, a single workshop school.