Interview by Paul Salfen
THE CHOSEN TELEVISION SERIES BUILDS PERMANENT PRODUCTION FACILITY IN NORTH TEXAS
Dallas, TX…Midlothian, Texas has been chosen by The Chosen as the permanent home of the production facility for the groundbreaking television series. The show, which is the first multi-season series about the life of Christ as seen through the eyes of the apostles, has a five-year lease agreement, and they are scheduled to shoot the remainder of season two through season seven at the new location.
The Chosen, LLC will utilize 900 acres of the city’s Salvation Army camp to build sets for the show, production offices, recreational facilities and housing for cast and crew members. “This partnership with the Salvation Army will allow us to accomplish production feats that we could never have otherwise,” says series Executive Producer Derral Eves. “Right now, we have pop-up tents in place, we are building permanent set pieces including what we call Faux-Pernaum and other series locations. This has been a real blessing for us.”
The production will also provide a tremendous boost to the area’s television and film industry with seventy-eight of the 110 person crew being from Texas and twenty-three of the fifty-four series regulars hailing from the Lone Star State. The Chosen, LLC has committed to spending $4.2 million in Texas for the remainder of the Season Two shoot which commences on January 6, 2021 at the new facility.
Season two explores the building of Jesus’ group of disciples and the personal and interpersonal ups and downs of his growing notoriety as they take their ministry on the road. “Fans will be able to walk with Jesus as he ventures into Samaria which will be a very exciting period,” says Eves. “It’s going to be interesting to see how much turmoil there was between Samaritans and Jewish people during the time period. The Sermon on the Mount also takes place in season two. What makes this season so powerful is that it is greater than religious backgrounds and what drives people politically, this season is all about heart, compassion and love, and I think it will also be very well received.”
DALLAS JENKINS is the Creator and Showrunner. The Chosen stars SHAHAR ISAAC (Madame Secretary, Person of Interest), JONATHAN ROUMIE (Chicago Med, Ballers, The Mindy Project) and PARAS PATEL (Nashville).
The Chosen, which further made history by becoming the largest crowd-funded media project of all time having surpassed the $20 million dollar mark, is distributed by VidAngel, the family-friendly streaming app and original content studio. Its top-rated original series Dry Bar Comedy and The Chosen have earned wide acclaim from critics and audiences alike. VidAngel’s proprietary technology—empowering families to “skip” unwanted language, nudity, violence, and other undesired content from movies and TV shows streaming on Netflix, and Amazon Prime—is available on modern devices such as iOS, Android, ROKU, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV and continues to be popular with parents and families.
