JWK: What can you tell me about Being?

Jim E. Chandler: It’s actually developed from a short into becoming possibly an eight-episode series that’s being considered by a streaming service…Hopefully, it gets picked up and gets the order for eight episodes…Jenn can tell you a little bit about the story.

Jenn Gotzon: What we can say is that it is a space sci-fi TV series that follows as astronaut scientist who’s on Mars on an emergency mission back to Earth. My character is that astronaut, Doctor Ana Harbin. Cameron Arnett plays the AI on the ship…This extraordinary team has literally created from the ground up an interior of a space ship in a warehouse in Orlando…Dominic Carola is the lead visionary on it…Marty from International Christian Film Festival was the one who recommended me to get involved. We just developed like a family (relationship with) Ray Aguerrevere, who is the exec producer, (and the team that had also done) animation for Disney. So (for) The Princess and the Frog they did a lot of the characters on there and (for) The Lion King, Dominic, who with Kevin Lang is the director of the series, was the one who animated Young Simba.

This is their first time doing live action – coming from the animation world. Dominic drew up sketches of a spaceship and John Robins, one of the producers, literally built the spaceship. It’s so amazing! We are so honored, so humbled and just so blown away by their generosity, their kindness (and) their love. It’s so good…And Jim is in it.

JEC: I’ll be playing a Mission Control commander, an executive-type person that’s in charge of monitoring, managing and navigating the mission…So, my character’s back on Earth.

JWK: Have you two been fans of science fiction before this or is this kind of a new genre for you?

JEC: Well, I’ve enjoyed science fiction. I wouldn’t consider myself a Trekkie or somebody who is like diehard Star Wars but I enjoy watching them. It’s always interesting because in the intergalactic world they’re always (facing) the same things we face on Earth – and what we face in Christianity. It’s a parallel to like a spiritual thing where there’s spiritual good and spiritual evil. Most of those science-fiction stories, they generally follow that motif.

JWK: I think the most interesting sci-fi does that.

JG: Yeah. It’s so neat because it started off as a bunch of friends at Premise Entertainment. They said “Hey, let’s just do what we’ve been wanting to do forever. Let’s just do a short film on a spaceship.” So, if you can imagine, like a bunch of young kids when they’re gonna go out and build a spaceship out of cardboard boxes. That’s what it reminds me of. Such creatively intelligent men who are working professionals in the world said “Let’s do this” but instead of with cardboard boxes they did it (almost for) real. It started off as a short but then it just got such excitement behind it because there’s nothing like this in the faith-based world and it picked up legs. There is a company that’s very interested in it and once they see the pilot or the proof of concept they might want to move forward with making it (a series). So, our entire team has shifted direction to say “Wow! This is no longer a little fun project. This is a project than can be fun and have the opportunity of reaching people with a really fun story and message.”

Note: Jim is currently involved with a Uganda mission trip to provide water filtration systems for refugees. You can donate here.  Meanwhile, Jenn can be seen with Kevin Sorbo in the faith-based Die Hard-like thriller Forgiven on Netflix. The couple are also preparing a sequel to The Farmer and the Belle.
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Friday Media Scroll: Growing Fox Nation; Disney under pressure; Brian Stelter exits CNN Stage Left; A top-flight political ad

From The Hollywood Reporter: The streaming service for Fox News “super fans” is getting into the original movie business, green-lighting four films for the service. The first project, an adaptation of Nancy Naigle’s novel The Shell Collector, will debut on Fox Nation Sept. 1, with the next project timed to release during the holiday season.
From The Wrap: “I’m grateful the amazing Fox Nation team chose ‘The Shell Collector’ to be the first movie in their expansion into film production,” Naigle said in an exclusive statement to TheWrap. “This is the book of my heart. Writing this story helped me navigate my grief following the loss of my husband. My hope for the book was that when my readers face that type of loss, hope and comfort from this story will lift from their heart and help them navigate it a little easier. For ‘The Shell Collector’ to touch even more hearts in movie format is more than I could have ever dreamed of. My heart is filled with so much joy over the beautiful story adaptation. Every special moment is represented in the film.”
IMHO: It’s usually a good sign of a quality adaptation when the author of the source material is happy. And transforming Fox Nation into into a broad news and entertainment venue that reflects the sensibility and traditional values of Fox News viewers is an ingenious move that has lots of upside potential both for the streaming service and even for broadening Fox News’ already wide audience base.
Fox Nation which, BTW,  might make a good home for Being, should consider casting its demographic net still wider into the family market as Disney, an by extension Disney+, has gone cartoonishly (and not in the classic Disney sense) Woke and is looking increasingly vulnerable to challenge.  (See below.)

From New York Post business columnist Charles Gasparino: “I  really like Dan Loeb,” a CEO of a major US company told me as we discussed Loeb’s latest activist move, the purchase of a $1 billion stake in Disney with calls to cut costs, shed assets and improve management. “But the last thing I want is Dan snooping around my company. The fox in the henhouse never plays nice.” Of course, activist investors like Loeb aren’t in the business of playing nice. And Loeb is particularly adept at his job…(He) wants to force change and enhance shareholder value, which has been noticeably missing from the company recently. The stock is down more than 23% year-to-date and more than 30% in the past 52 weeks. Cable cord cutting is eating into Disney’s linear businesses, including its still-profitable sports cable network ESPN. The Disney+ streaming service is growing, but still losing money…Then there are the unstated reasons Disney is in trouble, the one that industry executives, investors and rivals will tell you when they’re not being quoted by name: Woke don’t sell, particularly when it comes to a company trying to sell kid-oriented programming and theme-park experiences to Middle America.
IMHO: Gee, you mean these people don’t have their fingers on the pulse of America?

Brian Stelter hosted the final edition of Reliable Sources and, on his way, out the door at at CNN reminded everyone how he helped to badly tarnish the brand. Maybe he can go help Chris Cuomo create discord at NewsNation while also subverting the fledgling channel’s stated mission of offering viewers unbiased news.

The subject of Brian Stelter and the overall bias (and then some) of Corporate Media brings us to the…

Quote of the Week: “The rules of engagement are as follows: Number one—don’t fire unless fired upon but when they fire, you fire back with overwhelming force. Number two—never ever back down from a fight. Number three—don’t accept their narrative.” – Florida Governor (and US Navy vet) Ron DeSantis in the campaign ad below. BTW, you know the ad is pretty damn good when the Mediaite crowd is already trying to seize control over the narrative about it.

John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God.