Hollywood just opened the door to a culture-shifting phenomenon

As 'House of David' hits Amazon Prime Video, has Hollywood finally embraced faith and family content?

One of the biggest mysteries plaguing Hollywood has been the overarching reticence to sufficiently court the faith and family audience, a values-based cohort that has proven itself ravenous for high-caliber content that delivers safe and uplifting entertainment.

But Tinseltown traditionally has instead offered up a drought in this arena, with mainstream networks, production companies and platforms either ignoring or taking this audience for granted.

This has effectively forced Christian and family-friendly outfits in recent years to independently create outside of the traditional system. Meanwhile, Hollywood has, at moments, been taken by surprise when faith-based films on shoe-string budgets deliver stunning profit margins.

This dynamic seems to be gearing up for a pretty notable change, though, with Prime, a streaming platform owned by Amazon, releasing“House of David,” a TV series premiering last week that pledges to tell the “story of the ascent of the biblical figure, David, who eventually becomes the most renowned and celebrated king of Israel.”

From King Saul’s fall to David’s rise — and plenty more — the show, directed by filmmakers Jon Gunn and Jon Erwin, is emblematic of a stunning shift among behemoth, mainstream Hollywood companies: the realization that faith and family-friendly content deserves a seat at the big kids’ table.

In August, I flew to Athens, Greece, to visit the “House of David” set and was blown away by the sights, sounds and elevated quality as the team worked to create a biblical series perfectly suited to compete against its secular counterparts.

The experience was rooted in the overt realization that “House of David” is far more than a Hollywood production. It is a passion project for astute filmmakers who have diligently worked for years in this space.

In fact, for Mr. Erwin, making “House of David” has been the recognition of a lifelong dream. Recalling a trip to Israel he made as a teenager with his father, he reflected on visiting Jerusalem and taking in the complex and multifaceted history.

“It’s unbelievable,” he told me. “And going to David’s tomb … the influence of this person 3,000 years later is incredible. And it’s one of the ultimate stories to try to tell as a filmmaker.”

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

For Mr. Erwin, that’s what it’s all about — conveying an unforgettable and complex story that has defined the Judeo-Christian tradition and shaped the arc of human history.

“It’s a destiny story,” he said of David’s trajectory. “It’s a coming of age story, it’s a hero’s journey.”

David was always on Mr. Erwin’s creative radar, but it wasn’t until he scored a slew of successful theatrical hits such as “I Can Only Imagine” and “Jesus Revolution” that he was in a position to take on such a pivotal project.

“I’m grateful to the audience for the success of the films that allow us to take on something this big,” he said. “The words ‘David and Goliath’ are globally known, but no one knows really the story of the characters and their journey … and, so, it’s an enormous undertaking.”

Mr. Gunn said a great deal went into developing these well-known Bible characters. From Samuel to David and Goliath, scriptures offer hints and breadcrumbs about who they are and what they faced, but a series such as “House of David” embarks on a deeper journey to fill in the blanks and make some important content choices.

“I think that’s part of what’s really appealing about telling a story like this,” he said. “David and Goliath is something everybody knows. They know that phrase, they know the image of this shepherd boy and this giant, but there’s a world and a life that lives underneath that legend.”

Mr. Gunn highlighted the powerful opportunity he and Mr. Erwin have had to bring “relatable life” to a well-known Bible story, helping craft David’s journey into something that’s both visually stunning and complex — and, of course, above all else: accurate to scripture.

“I get excited about finding the relatability and the humanity in something that’s so epic and so legendary,” Mr. Gunn said. “And, so, that’s what’s been fun for us is to explore the characters at great length.”

Both filmmakers emphasized the seriousness with which they take the Bible, crafting every element of their scripts around the benchmarks found in the Old Testament narrative.

“I remember when some of the executives at Prime read the scripts … and they’re like, ‘These scripts are really good,’” Mr. Erwin said, noting that he reminded them it’s based on the biblical narrative. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s based off a bestseller! I love the book.”

“House of David,” of course, comes with some added pressure. Unlike “The Chosen” — the incredible TV series about Jesus and his followers — and other independent projects that have made their way from outside the mainstream into the fold, this show is premiering on a major platform and setting a potential precedent for other faith-based films and shows that follow.

Mr. Gunn is hoping the impact is transformational and that the audience sees the heart and passion behind the show.

“I want people to be surprised by the way in which they’re engaged with this story they think they already know,” he said. “I think that a lot of times, when you look at something that’s famous … you’re just looking for a faithful adaptation. What I want is for people to go, ‘I just got lost in the world of it, forgetting that it was a famous story.’”

Only time will tell how the audience responds, but one can’t ignore the reality that “House of David” could represent a seismic, star-aligning shift in Hollywood’s willingness to bring biblical content into the mainstream fold.

With “House of David,” “The Chosen,” Great American Family and other films, shows and companies upping the ante on their cultural influence, it’s hard to see the future of values-based entertainment as anything other than eternally bright.