Mark Burnett and Roma Downey are developing a scripted religious drama entitled “Messiah” for Netflix, Variety has confirmed. The project is in the very early development stages, but would be set in the modern day and tell the story of the world’s reaction to a man who appears to be performing miracles in the Middle East.
Burnett and Downey will exec produce along with Andrew Deane. Michael Petroni is the creator of the series, and will also serve as an executive producer. Petroni’s previous credits include the creating the ABC drama “Miracles,” which starred Skeet Ulrich as an investigator working on behalf of the Catholic Church.
He also wrote the screenplay for the feature film adaptation of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and the 2011 Anthony Hopkins exorcism horror-drama “The Rite.” Netflix is producing the series, while MGM Television, of which Burnett is the president, is not involved with the project.
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This is the latest religion-based project for Burnett and Downey. The husband and wife team previously collaborated on the History miniseries “The Bible,” the TV movie “Women of the Bible” at Lifetime, “A.D. The Bible Continues” on NBC, and “The Dovekeepers” at CBS, among others. Burnett is also well known for producing reality TV hits such as “Survivor,” “The Apprentice,” and “Shark Tank.”
