Mofac Animation bringing a little known Dickens tale to life, with the The King of Kings

Fresh from South Korea, animation company Mofac has a beautiful looking, faith-powered film incoming with King of Kings.

A hidden classic returns

Most people probably know one or two of Charles Dickens’ iconic tales. Actually, most people probably know more than that, as the writer was prolific, creating a catalog of stories that would become cultural touchstones. But even so, even the biggest follower of the scribe might not know The Life of Our Lord.

A short-story originally, The Life of Our Lord is of course about Jesus Christ, and was spun out of the writer wanting to better connect with his own children. Apparently Dickens had more than a little trouble balancing his work and home lives, not exactly unique in today’s world either, specially in relating to his youngest son Walter.

Family bonding over shared religious beliefs isn’t new either, and that’s why Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord. Though it isn’t one of his better known tales, the story became a household mainstay, and was reportedly read every Christmas in the Dickens home. Now it’s set to make a comeback, and should be reaching a much wider audience thanks to Korean filmmaker and visual effects master (director and co-writer) Seong-ho “Jay” Jang.

The movie will be full-length, and will adapt and expand The Life of Our Lord into King of Kings.

In the film, Charles Dickens finds trouble balancing his writing and performing with the parenting
of his children – particularly his youngest son, Walter. Charles discovers the perfect bonding
element via the sharing of his short story The Life of Our Lord – the reading of which would
become an annual tradition in the Dickens’ family Christmas celebration. Master storyteller Charles
and his imaginative son Walter find common ground within the entrancing story of Jesus, his well-
known trials and tribulations, and his notable colleagues and foes – with animation allowing the
Dickens pair (and the family cat Willa) to become intrinsically immersed in the ancient tale. The
result is an animated film that makes the biblical journey easily relatable, readily understood and
captivatingly entertaining for families and, especially, to children of all ages.

…

“For the past 2000-plus years, the story of Jesus has been told and re-told in countless ways across
virtually every country on the planet,” explains Jang. “This is a deeply personal story to all of us on
the production crew, and we know it resonates with so many around the world. The added joy of
this little-known iteration is that you see the story unfold not only from Charles Dickens’ unique
literary perspective, but through his son Walter’s eyes – which ultimately provides young viewers
with even greater access and understanding of who Jesus was and all that he represents.”

Mofac Animation press release

Though you might not know the name Seong-ho “Jay” Jang, you probably know some of what he’s worked on in his career. The man has over a hundred credits to his name, including Joint Security Area, Starz’ Spartacus, The Taste of Money, Last Knights, and Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back. That last one notably “shattered” Chinese box office records, by the way.

Jang co-wrote the movie with westerner Rob Edwards, who scripted for films like The Princess and the Frog and Treasure Planet, plus iconic TV series’ like In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, A Different World, and Full House. Want some more credits? He’s also just completed working on a remake of The Great Escape for director/producer Reggie Hudlin, and is working on the move adaptation of none other than Call of Duty for Stacey Sher and Activision.

There’s a lot of muscle behinds this, and while we await a release date, you can get a little more of a peek via the official site here. So basically, stay tuned for lots more, as this might be one to watch as it makes its way to the big screen.