New details emerge on film adaptation of Anne Rice's Christ the Lord

A film adaptation of Anne Rice’s bestselling novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt now has a release date, a distributor, and a new title.

The film is will be called The Young Messiah and will premiere nationwide March 11, 2016 to coincide with the Easter season. Focus Features, the indie film distribution arm of NBCUniversal, is backing the project for distribution. Sean Bean, whom readers likely know from The Lord of the Rings films, plays one of the main characters in the film.

The story follows Jesus’ life as a 7-year-old, a period the gospels leave mostly untold. That allows for some creative narrative, which Rice did carefully in her novel. She relates a childhood during which Jesus is “growing in wisdom” while also being God Himself.

The gospels do provide a dramatic framework for the story: After his family fled Herod’s slaughter of children in Bethlehem, Jesus spent a portion of his childhood in Egypt. The book follows Jesus and his family’s return to an Israel suffering under Roman occupation.

Cyrus Nowrasteh, who directed the critically acclaimed The Stoning of Soraya M., directs The Young Messiah and wrote the script with his wife Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh. The Nowrastehs are Christians.

“It’s important to us that The Young Messiah inspires people to visit, or revisit, Jesus’ story from a fresh new angle, one that centers on an unexplored moment in His life between the nativity and His crucifixion and resurrection,” Cyrus Nowrasteh said in a statement. “We also hope that, in some small way, our film leads viewers to the transformation and grace that Jesus extends to us all.”

The film has some experienced producers as well. Chris Columbus, who produced several of the Harry Potter movies among many others, is on the team, as well as producers from such varying films as The Help (Michael Barnathan)and Snowpiercer (Miky Lee). With a high caliber team and distributor, The Young Messiah has the potential to be a well executed film. WORLD will have a review closer to its release.