Tag Archives: interview

Many “Rise of the Merlin” Interviews

Author Jon Del Arroz conducted interviews with some the people involved in The Daily Wire’s The Rise of the Merlin. In the video above, he talked to Rose Reid, a writer and the actress who plays Charis in the show.

“By the time we got to film,” she said, “I had spent so much time in her skin as it were, she felt very second nature. . . . I wanted to go back and see the prophecy and her relationship with her mother, but it’s ultimately not her story. It’s Merlin’s story.”

Next, Del Arroz talked writer Lee Blaylock, who spoke more to how they adapted Lawhead’s work to the screen. Blaylock says, “You’ve seen episode three, so now you know where Merlin’s story begins at least in the episode. Now, in the book that’s halfway through the book. We have a whole first half that details Merlin’s youth and adolescence. We plotted that out as well. We put that on the board, this is what these episodes would look like, but . . . we realized he’s just too passive. While the things that are happening are interesting and fascinating, he’s not — it commits that grievous error in scriptwriting that your character’s not active enough.”

In the next video, Del Arroz talked to James Arden, who plays Taliesin. This is the first of his interviews, so they avoid plot details when talking specifics. Arden said that wasn’t his voice when his character sang, because he can’t sing in tune.

“It was really awkward to stand — because obviously everyone has to react to Taliesin’s voice, which is described in the books . . . as a voice so beautiful that it gives the illusion that you have no wound. You have no pain.”

And earlier this week, he spoke to the main showrunner, writer, and director of the series Jeremy Boreing. He said producing a series like this has to care for the audience, who may have rejected such entertainment because so many other shows have let them down. “We’re so concerned the Left is going to put us in the ghetto that we do the work for them.”

Wilson Interview on New Book, Abide

Jared Wilson has a Bible study called Abide: Practicing Kingdom Rhythms in a Consumer Culture and answers a few questions about it here. Here’s a bit from the first part of the interview:

Your book has much to say about the influence that our consumer culture has upon us as Christians. How would you describe its impact upon the being and doing of today’s evangelical church? In other words, is the influence of consumer culture hindering us from being the church, and, if so, how?

Yes, consumer culture has enormous impact on the evangelical church, and the “root” way it hinders us from being the church is how it appeals to and feeds our innate self-centeredness. Consumer culture urges us to see ourselves at the center of the universe. From self-service to self-help, everything about consumer culture makes convenience, quickness, and comfort idols that are difficult not to worship. And of course the more self-centered we are, the less inclined we’ll be to see the great need of experiencing the gospel community of the church. And consumer culture affects the “doing” of the church, as well, which is fairly evident in the way many churches not only don’t subvert consumerism but actually orient around it and cater to it. From some of the more egregious forms of marketing to the way church services are designed to the way many preachers prepare the messages, the chief concern appears to be to keep the customers satisfied.

Interview on Box of Books

Ella of Box of Books continues posting by proxy while she is on vacation. She has lined up several interesting interviews with various lit-bloggers. Today, she has posted her interview with me.