Rene Echevarria broke into show business by penning episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in the ’80s.
Now, the versatile writer/director is putting his Christian faith front and center with a limited series unlike any other.
‘Play it like you don’t know you’re in the Bible.’
“The Faithful: Women of the Bible” debuts at 8 p.m. March 22 on FOX and airs the next day on Hulu. The three-part saga explores the book of Genesis through the eyes of consequential women.
Think Sarah (Minnie Driver), the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac, whose infertility gave way to a spiritual miracle. Or Rebekah (Alexa Davalos), mother of Jacob and Esau and wife of Isaac.
In the beginning
Echevarria’s production partner, veteran TV producer Carol Mendelsohn, came up with the show’s angle.
“She knew I was a believer and loved the Bible,” Echevarria tells Align. “She’s a seeker, with a restless curiosity about spiritual matters.”
The veteran storyteller wasn’t initially convinced that the project would be the perfect fit for him.
“I was a little skeptical … [asking], ‘Is that too limiting?’” he says of the concept, adding that his initial fears were unfounded. “The experience has been great; it opened my eyes to understanding these timeless stories.”
Deeper truth
Echevarria, who has worked with James Cameron (“Dark Angel”) and Steven Spielberg (“Terra Nova”) throughout his expansive career, says he took care to balance creative license with both his faith and the source material.
“I’ve been blessed to have worked in this business a long time. mostly making up stories. interpreting stories,” he says. Not this time.
“I always have to check myself, and sometimes I wish that little piece of Scripture wasn’t there. It would be so much easier,” he says from a dramatic perspective. “I found that if I didn’t try to avoid the challenges but steer into them, … you’ll find something deeper, a deeper truth, … things that I didn’t think of.”
“The Faithful” was shot in Italy, giving the creative team access to lush landscapes, including expanses of olive trees, that created a reasonable facsimile to biblical times. The team decided early in the production to work with mostly British actors and use their vocal cadences in the process.
A new light
The son of Cuban immigrants says making “The Faithful” impacted his personal faith.
“It re-invigorated my love of Scripture. … I’m seeing things I thought I knew in a completely new light,” he says.
Some cast and crew members didn’t necessarily share his faith, which added nuance to the production.
“There’s a lot of downtime on set. So many times, people shared with me stories about why and how this project came to them at the right place in their lives,” he says. “Like people struggling with having lost a parent or having troubles with their kids.”
Others were skeptical about doing a Bible-based project.
“One actor shared that he found himself drawn in and said, ‘Yes, I want to do that,’” he recalls after the performer’s initial reluctance.
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Vertical
No ‘unearned piety’
Still, he turned having actors who didn’t know Scripture into a positive development. It made the humanity of the core players pop.
“Play it like you don’t know you’re in the Bible,” he says of his advice to the cast. That allowed them to avoid an “unearned piety” that brought the figures down to earth. “It’s just ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.”
Echevarria wouldn’t mind telling more tales from the “Faithful” perspective. He cites the book of Ruth and the Samaritan woman at the well as stories ripe for future “Faithful” installments. That’s assuming viewers flock to the show, set to wrap on Easter Sunday.
“That’s my fondest hope, that the show finds an audience,” he says. Those chances are better than ever given the current pop culture climate. Shows like “The Chosen” and “House of David” have connected with Christians the world over, and the first part of Mel Gibson’s “The Resurrection of the Christ” series could be one of 2027’s biggest movie events.
“There’s a hunger out there for this kind of storytelling,” he says. “They’re resonating. People are taking notice.”
And he hasn’t forgotten how he entered show business several decades ago. He dreams of rejoining the “Star Trek” universe after penning 30-plus episodes across “The Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine.” He’s been noodling with an idea “out of left field” to share in that franchise.
“I’m waiting for the right moment to bring it over there,” he says.
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