If the term “Faith programming” evokes images of Jesus Christ or shepherds of the Bible in your head, you have probable that you have not seen one of the titles in the Wonder Project list. Together with La Teja as Angel Studios (“Sound of Freedom”) and 5 & 2 Studios (“The Eleced”), the production company behind the successful television series “House of David” is taking cinema and television based on faith much beyond the strictly religious content of a past era.
In the front lines of the transmission wars, for example.
With the launch of October 5, a subscription -based channel for $ 8.99 per month, or $ 89.99 per year, in an independent application or through an existing main video subscription, Wonder Project is betting on a more modern approach to the market or values based on faith, in terms of narration and platform.
Kelly Merryman Hoogstraten.
(Billy Moon)
“What we are seeing now is that the program of faith is broader, more nuanced and more contemporary than it may have been in the past,” says Traci Blackwell, a senior development executive at Amazon MGM Studios. “Often explores issues of hope, perseverance, community and moral complexity so that they resonate with the public based on faith and the mainstream.”
The executive director of the Wonder Project, Kelly Merryman Hoogstraten, worked with the founder and content director Jon Erwin to identify and build a wide programming list built around four theme “circles”: God, the family, the country and dreams.
One of those stories is the drama with a “House of David” script, which premiered in February in a main video and obtained more than 40 million viewers. The series, created by Erwin, follows the iconic Sheepherder (Michael Iskander) who is anointed king of Israel, then defeats a giant named Goliath (Martyn Ford) in the first season of eight episodes. The series obviously has biblical roots, but intends to attract more than a niche audience. “Production values, storytelling and universal themes attract far beyond that [faith] center. That is why the category has expanded to what we would call 'inspiring narration' that can live along with any other premium series, “says Blackwell.
The success of the Wonder Project subscription service is intimately connected to ensuring that “House of David” does not suffer a second year fall: in an unexpected movement, season 2 will premiere with two episodes on the launch day of Wonder Project and will not be available in a main video until a later date.
Michael Iskander as David and Indy Lewis as Princess Mychal in “House of David.” Photo credit: Jonathan Prime/Prime © Amazon Content Services LLC
(Jonathan Prime)
“This type of strategic windows actually strengthens the program's life cycle,” explains Blackwell. “Wonder Project offers an early home for fans who are eager to see it first, and when the series reaches Prime Video, it reaches a much larger audience worldwide. For us, it is about extending the impact and ensuring that the program has multiple opportunities to capture viewers on all platforms.”
Thinking about the audience and how they are seeing is something that Merryman Hoogstraten says that the Netflix competition transmission model follows, where she worked as a content acquisition vice president from 2007 to 2014.
“One of the reasons why I think Netflix was so successful in those first days is that we were really flexible,” she says. “We look at the project, look at the partner and said: 'What is the best for the audience?'”
In addition to “House of David”, other Wonder Project offers include originals such as “Redemption”, a limited documentation after the Ohio State football season that will be released in the service in October, a Christmas special presented by Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town, which is located in December and the contemporary contemporary drama of Contemporary which is not a drama of Aywow and Erinn Pastor and Eryn.
That audience is increasingly attractive to Hollywood because it is a fluid and still neglected market. “It's bigger than we sometimes think because we think of faith as a genre instead of an audience,” says Erwin. “But I am just over 40 years old, father of four children, and I can't get anything that my children and I can see together. I don't know if a program I am seeing will be offensive or not.”
Jon Erwin.
(Wonder Project)
Although it presents consistently high stakes and its own game of Thrones, “House of David” is very light in sex and blasphemy, and when it contains violence, as in the confrontation of David and Goliath at the end of season 1, it is not as graphic or sustained as certain competitors. That makes Premium and Family visualization, which cannot be said for “The Last of Us” or “Squid Game”.
“There is something beautiful in the Wonder project,” says Erwin. “I am the public.”
