Alejandro at 2014-04-30 18:21:46:

Yes, it would probably be super-controversial, maybe even more than The Last Temptation of Christ. But I wonder if the world is more open to such controversial topics compared to 1988, the year "The Last Temptation..." opened (or tried to) Having said that, "Gospels meet Contact" is a very interesting idea. I would make it even more controversial linking it with other prophets before and after Jesus, namely those of Abrahamic religions. Although probably including one of the three major Abrahamic religions could get us into trouble like http://www.salon.com/2004/11/24/vangogh_2/

Alejandro at 2014-04-30 18:30:44:

An alternative: what if our story is about a filmmaker that wants to film such a story? We go with him through development, funding, filming, post, and marketing. And of course, right from the beginning we have a church with extreme ideologies going after the filmmakers? That would be quite a good opportunity to talk about freedom of speech and probably freedom of belief.

Alejandro at 2014-04-30 18:40:45:

Maybe we could have a dual timeline narrative, one in the present, the other in the past. In the present we have the group of scientists that discovered the structure, find out it's alien. The past - the arrival of the structure. The present - media, church and population reaction to the news. Hint it may be connected to Jesus. The past - the messiah and his first miracle. The present - proof that demonstrates it's alien AND connected to the messiah. Riots The past - most of the Gospel reinterpreted, Juda's betrayal (also reinterpreted). The present - religious fanatics attack the scientists, riots.. The past - the crucifixion. The present - a terrorist attack on the scientists. They die. The past - the resurrection. The present - We tie everything with the second advent. The end (literally, as in the apocalypse, the end of times)

blueneumann at 2014-04-30 19:09:47:

You know, they're making a movie based on the book "Zealot," which I thought would make an excellent movie but didn't think anyone would be brave enough to actually make after the whole Last Temptation kerfuffle. You do have that problem of the hyper-loud hyper-religious population screaming when the story deviates from the happy family-friendly Sunday School version of the stories they half-remember.. I definitely wouldn't have made the "Contact" connection, probably because it might sound like something someone might actually believe. I was immediately defaulting to a Seth Graeme-Smith attitude, make it crazy enough so that people can't take offense (although I haven't read his Jesus book, so I don't know if that's the attitude he took there). It WOULD be cool to see a movie about a prophet with that kind of visual style, though. There was also a short movie I saw a year or two ago where an alien comes to Earth to save it and takes on the visage of Jesus Christ... unfortunately, the first person he runs into is a maniac criminal on the run from the police. It was... weird. Especially when you see the dog at the end. I guess you'd have to use a certain amount of flippancy to let the audience know that you're just playing around and this shouldn't be taken seriously. That would be my approach.

blueneumann at 2014-04-30 19:24:46:

This is taking me back, when I was a kid I loved theories like this. I remember watching this "Mysteries of the Pyramids LIVE" special on Fox (quality programming!) where these archaeologists in Egypt were uncovering all these hidden little passages... there was a real "Geraldo opening Capone's vault" to the whole thing (not that I knew that reference yet), and it ended with them finding a flooded passageway that... and I don't remember if THEY suggested it (I'm sure they did) or if my mind just humped ahead, but they thought that the passageway might lead to either a tunnel connecting all the pyramids like a subway line, or lead to a secret library room with scrolls that might point out where Atlantis is... something batshit crazy like that. I was thinking maybe what they discovered isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine... some historians from the future go back in time (or some astronauts fall through a time hole like in "Planet Of The Apes") and arrive in Aramaic times and for some reason or another decide to re-create Jesus. Maybe they accidentally kill the real one and have to take his place or something like that (though I'm sure there's another biblical/ancient story that might fit this premise better). Of course, they would be basing their model off of Jesus 2.0, the "friendly Sunday School" one and not the agitator who was pretty much public enemy number one in his day. Or the crew could all have their OWN ideas on how to "fix" this broken society that they come into, so you could have this "war or the messiahs" going on ("Zealot" pointed out that there were tons of messiahs running around back then, and honestly, the whole book made me realize how weirdly accurate "Life Of Brian" is).

Despina at 2014-04-30 22:06:20:

The first thing that popped into my mind was the opening sequence from this last Star Trek (Into Darkness) when the Enterprise is hiding in the water while they try to save that primitive planet from the volcano (Pompeii? Santorini?)... only, something malfunctioned and it didn't take off and they were stuck and had to learn to adapt and integrate with the planet's species and that's where the theory of God came into play, and in His likeness, etc... The next thing I thought of was The Abyss. My brain stops there because I've had the flu since Sunday and I'm in a stupor at the moment. But I'd been so busy making sure all my submissions were ready for deadline that I neglected to follow this gllllorious blog for my favorite series :( (I had to- I have major SOSD a.k.a Shiny Object Syndrome Disorder)... so here I am on the last day and I can't even hack it. Boooo... I love archaeological stuff (have a story in the works) and ancient history/the classics so this would normally get my brain buzzing if it weren't full of drunk flutterflies bouncing off the back of my eyeballs like june bugs to a light in the night. zzzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZzzzzzzzDONK... thud! WHEEEEEEEEE!