'Killing Jesus' to Be Made Into 4-Hour Miniseries; Set for Global 2015 Premiere
The bestseller Killing Jesus, by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, is set to be made into a 4-hour miniseries on National Geographic, with production to begin this summer. The show will air to a global audience across 171 countries and 45 languages in 2015.
Deadline.com reported on Tuesday that veteran TV producer Walon Green, famous for "Law & Order," is expected to write and executive produce the project.
This will be National Geographic's third installment in the "Killing" franchise, following "Killing Lincoln" and "Killing Kennedy," which are also based on Fox News anchor O'Reilly's books.
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Contrary to The History Channel's "The Bible" miniseries in 2013, which was later turned into the "Son of God" movie, "Killing Jesus" is expected to take a historical rather than a religious approach to the events depicted in the Bible.
"It's not a religious book, it's just history," O'Reilly has said about the book. "You don't have to be a religious person to want to know about the most famous man who's ever lived."
In a separate interview, the TV host, who is a Roman Catholic, suggested that the Holy Spirit, directed him to write Killing Jesus.
"All of the ideas come to me in the middle of the night, and one night, I just woke up and it went, 'Killing Jesus,'" O'Reilly said in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" in 2013.
"And I believe – because I'm a Catholic – that comes from the Holy Spirit. My inspiration comes from that. And so I wrote Killing Jesus because I think I was directed to write that."
O'Reilly further reflected that the story behind his book "details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth," and noted that Jesus' presence is felt all over the world more than 2,000 years since he physically walked the earth.
Producers Ridley Scott, David Zucker and Mary Lisio are also expected to return to the "Killing" franchise and helm the Jesus-centered installment.
