{"id":28752,"date":"2023-05-03T15:58:25","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T19:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=28752"},"modified":"2023-05-03T15:58:25","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T19:58:25","slug":"coming-attractions-hilary-swank-stars-in-faith-themed-ordinary-angels-antonio-banderas-plays-king-herod-in-epic-nativity-musical-journey-to-bethlehem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2023\/05\/coming-attractions-hilary-swank-stars-in-faith-themed-ordinary-angels-antonio-banderas-plays-king-herod-in-epic-nativity-musical-journey-to-bethlehem.html","title":{"rendered":"Coming Attractions: Hilary Swank stars in faith-themed &#8220;Ordinary Angels&#8221; + Antonio Banderas plays King Herod in epic Nativity musical &#8220;Journey to Bethlehem&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 05\/03\/23<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Hilary Swank and Antonio Banderas star in upcoming faith-themed projects.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Ordinary Angels (2024) Trailer \u2013 Hilary Swank, Alan Ritchson, Nancy Travis, Tamala Jones\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/R1vn8kPgCYA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Based on a true story, <em><strong>Ordinary Angels<\/strong><\/em> stars Hilary Swank as Sharon, a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky who discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed (<strong>Alan Ritchson<\/strong>), a widower working hard to make ends meet for his two daughters. With his youngest daughter waiting for a liver transplant, Sharon sets her mind to helping the family and moving whatever mountains are necessary to do it. <strong>The movie set to open nationwide in theaters on October 13th.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As Christmas approaches the following month, Antonio Banderas (<strong><em>The Mask of Zorro<\/em><\/strong>) can be seen portraying the villainous <strong>King Herod<\/strong> in <em><strong>Journey to Bethlehem<\/strong><\/em>, a musical take on the Nativity. <strong>Fiona Palomo (<em>Outer Banks, Control Z<\/em>)<\/strong> and <strong>Milo Manheim (of Disney\u2019s <em>Zombies<\/em> series)<\/strong> star as Mary and Joseph. Principal photography for the <strong>Sony AFFIRM Films<\/strong> &#8211; <strong>Monarch Media<\/strong> project is currently underway on the coast of Spain.<\/p>\n<p>The musical is the brainchild of director <strong>Adam Anders<\/strong> who recalls first having the idea for the film five years ago. As he tells it &#8220;I was looking for a musical to watch with my family at Christmastime&#8230;I want this movie to be a bright light this Christmas season \u2014 as bright as the star of Bethlehem.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>AFFIRM Films chief <strong>Rich Peluso<\/strong> praises Anders&#8217; vision, saying \u201cThis joyous and fresh take on Mary and Joseph\u2019s journey, combined with the infectious music and insanely passionate vision of Adam Anders made this an undeniable fit for AFFIRM Films and Sony Pictures to come alongside and help turn this amazing story into a Christmas classic that will resound with young children, families, teens and adults.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Producer <strong>Alan Powel<\/strong>l of Monarch Media concurs, adding \u201cWe\u2019ve been amazed at Adam\u2019s ability to tell the widely known story of Mary, Joseph and a jealous king in a way that feels fresh and contemporary, like you\u2019ve never heard it before.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>Sony has slated the musical for a wide theatrical release this coming November 10th. <\/strong>Check out the teaser trailer below. <strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><iframe title=\"Journey To Bethlehem - Teaser Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/97fogYVPT-s?start=19&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>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. <\/em><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up &#8211; <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 05\/03\/23 Hilary Swank and Antonio Banderas star in upcoming faith-themed projects. Based on a true story, Ordinary Angels stars Hilary Swank as Sharon, a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky who discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed (Alan Ritchson),&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3632,13,1591,24,1],"tags":[14937,14931,14943,8614,14934,9468,14940,172,13867],"class_list":["post-28752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-christmas","category-family-matters","category-good-works","category-movies","category-uncategorized","tag-journey-to-bethlehem","tag-ordinary-angels","tag-adam-anders","tag-alan-powell","tag-antonio-banderas","tag-hilary-swank","tag-monarch-media","tag-rich-peluso","tag-sony-affirm-films"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Coming Attractions: Hilary Swank stars in faith-themed &quot;Ordinary Angels&quot; + Antonio Banderas plays King Herod in epic Nativity musical &quot;Journey to Bethlehem&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2023\/05\/coming-attractions-hilary-swank-stars-in-faith-themed-ordinary-angels-antonio-banderas-plays-king-herod-in-epic-nativity-musical-journey-to-bethlehem.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coming Attractions: Hilary Swank stars in faith-themed &quot;Ordinary Angels&quot; + Antonio Banderas plays King Herod in epic Nativity musical &quot;Journey to Bethlehem&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 05\/03\/23 Hilary Swank and Antonio Banderas star in upcoming faith-themed projects. Based on a true story, Ordinary Angels stars Hilary Swank as Sharon, a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky who discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed (Alan Ritchson),&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2023\/05\/coming-attractions-hilary-swank-stars-in-faith-themed-ordinary-angels-antonio-banderas-plays-king-herod-in-epic-nativity-musical-journey-to-bethlehem.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-03T19:58:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Based on a true story, Ordinary Angels stars Hilary Swank as Sharon, a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky who discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed (Alan Ritchson),&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2023\/05\/coming-attractions-hilary-swank-stars-in-faith-themed-ordinary-angels-antonio-banderas-plays-king-herod-in-epic-nativity-musical-journey-to-bethlehem.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2023-05-03T19:58:25+00:00","author":"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28752"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28785,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28752\/revisions\/28785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}