The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas

So sorry about not writing a blog in almost a month. A project that I've been working on for the past year has a deadline of next week and I' ve been completely fixated on finalizing it. It's The Word of Promise Next Generation New Testament audio Bible.

About a year ago I was having dinner with Wayne Hastings, Senior VP of Thomas Nelson, Inc. and he shared with me a startling statistic about how young people are moving away from the Bible more and more each year. An idea hatched during that dinner of creating a youth-oriented audio Bible with teen and young adult stars playing the major roles. The hope is that if youths of today had access to an audio Bible with stars they look up to, it might help get them back to the Bible. Wayne liked the idea and so I collaborated with Dan Lynch of the family division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. to set out to making it a reality. Like the current New Testament that I produced with Jim Caviezel as "Jesus" www.wordofpromise.com this youth New Testament audio has over 100 actors, music and sound effects to create a "you are there" feel.

Now a year later, we've just about completed production on it and I'm very pleased and proud of it. The stars include: Cody Linley as Jesus, AnnaSophia Robb as Mary Magdalene, Corbin Bleu as Peter, Marshall Allman as Paul, Luke Benward as Mark, Tahj Mowry as John, Charlie Stewart as Luke, Emily Osment as Mary, Mother of Jesus, Andrew Lawrence as Matthew, Alyson Stoner as Martha, Jordin Sparks as Elizabeth, Sean Astin as our Narrator, with Martin Jarvis as the Voice of God.

It's 25 hours on 20 CDs as well as an MP3 version. I'm very excited about this project and its impact I pray it will have on today's teens and tweens. It releases this coming October in stores everywhere.

On the TZ front, I've received several new scripts in from our very talented pool of writers. I'm looking forward to reading them once I get past my deadline of September 10th to turn in the Next Generation audio Bible. I'm looking forward to receiving a rough draft of the TZ episode "A Piano In the House" which stars the great Michael York. That should be here any day. Then after that will be "The Four of Us Are Dying" with my good friend Eric Bogosian. Next week I'm going to have a very special announcement (I promise not to be late with my next blog) so be sure to log on for it.

Thanks everyone. Talk to you next week.