Meet Troubled Teenage Jesus In āThe Carpenterās Sonā Based On Obscure Gospel
Can you market to a mainstream genre crowd and an open-minded faith-based audience simultaneously? Magnolia is trying just that with The Carpenterās Son, writer and director Lotfy Nathanās life of teenage Jesus story based on The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a obscure apocryphal gospel.
The film stars Nicolas Cage and FKA Twigs as Joseph and Mary, Noah Jupe as Jesus and Isla Johnston as a mysterious stranger who targets the family in a remote settlement in Roman-era Egypt. With every pull of temptation, the boy is lured into a forbidden world as terrified Joseph realizes that a demonic power is at work. Violent, unnatural events inexplicably follow Jesus, and he begins to experience nightmarish visions of the future. Finally, he learns the fearsome truth about his new playmate.
āThere isnāt a clear kind of genre to hang it on,ā said Lotfy. āItās a sort of an experiment for me in trying to tow both lines. Itās not an out-and-out horror film by any means. I didnāt have any interest in making that because I just donāt think it would fit the subject matter. Itās really just trying to color in what could be an origin story, to fill in the blanks.ā