Filmstalker: Gospel of Judas discovery to become film?

Another religious film connection today as news comes out that National Geographic have just purchased documents which are apparently the Gospel of Judas with plans to turn the effort to find them into a book and film, something akin to Da Vinci Code again I suspect.

From Duluth News Tribune:

A long-lost manuscript dating to the early Christian era and unveiled Thursday tells the Easter story from a strikingly different perspective: that of Judas Iscariot, long reviled as the man who betrayed Jesus.
The "Gospel of Judas," as the document has been titled, portrays Judas as Jesus' favorite, entrusted with secrets withheld from the other disciples. His role in the crucifixion was laudable, for it enabled Jesus to escape the limitations of the flesh.

In this version, "Judas is the good guy," said Bart Ehrman, a University of North Carolina professor of religious history.

Already the story of its find sounds like it could make good material, with an original buyer scouring the world for monies to buy it and failing, then National Geographic having to reconstruct the documents after they had been left in a vault to deteriorate, not to mention the work involved in smuggling these documents for sale originally.

Carbon-dating of the Judas gospel shows that the manuscript, 13 sheets with writing on both sides, dates to between 220 and 340 AD.

It certainly sounds like it could make a strong and very controversial film, not to mention the changes scholars hope it will bring about, but will it be any good, and is there an appetite to see such a movie or are we going to be all tired out from religious artefact chasing by then?

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Do you have cable or satellite Richard? I am pretty sure I saw an advert for a special about the gospel of Judas coming up on the National Geographic channel, maybe next week.

Posted by: Bullet in the head | April 7, 2006 12:05 PM

I am already tired. Specially, because the Da Vinci and imitators shit doesn´t come from religious people. The NG documentary is interesting, that´s for sure.

Posted by: Peter | April 7, 2006 1:15 PM

Hey guys, no I've only just bought Freeview - I just don't have the time to watch TV too!

I'm not sure if this will be the same thing, perhaps a documentary to raise awareness and begin the climb towards film production.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | April 7, 2006 1:34 PM

That film is sort of already done. Remember Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ", based on the Nikos Kazantzakis novel?

Posted by: Alexander G. Rubio | April 7, 2006 5:26 PM

Alexander, I think that was heavily based on what was believed to be his writing. As far as I knew these Judas writings haven't been released until now.

Posted by: Richard Brunton | April 7, 2006 6:15 PM

I know, Richard, but the interpretation of the character of Judas was consistent with the new found gospel, in fact surprisingly so, even though the gnostic view on this matter of course has been known for ages.

Posted by: Alexander G. Rubio | April 7, 2006 7:55 PM

Yes but these writing have just been released, and from all accounts they appear quite different to what has been believed till now. Some of the suggestions in that article are quite far removed from what is believed and practiced now.

That said, I have to admit to being non-religious, so I can't debate the points too far!

Posted by: Richard Brunton | April 7, 2006 9:18 PM

"...dates to between 220 and 340 AD."

This is 200 to 300 years after the events in the New Testament and makes this new document about as questionable as the Gnostic texts and the B.S. gospels of "Thomas" and "Mary Magdelene" which were also written a couple of centuries later.

Vic

Posted by: Screen Rant | April 7, 2006 9:36 PM

After reading the news on the paper yesterday this is exactly what hit me, that it's either a book will be written, or a film made. Maybe Dan Brown wants to do a book treatment?

Posted by: Simone | April 9, 2006 8:34 PM