The faith-based production company, including by a DreamWorks and Pixar veteran, is betting big on dramatized parables as the next frontier in religious cinema.
Emmaus Road Media, the faith-driven production company behind the Angel-distributed short The Good Samaritan, is setting its sights on a theatrical release for its next project β The Ten Virgins, a feature-length dramatization of the biblical parable filmed on location across Morocco. The company is targeting a 2027 release window, according to founding partner and producer Jonathan Farrell.
Farrell, whose rΓ©sumΓ© includes stints at Pixar (WALLΒ·E) and a seven-year run at DreamWorks Animation β where he served as a character effects artist on Madagascar, Mega Mind, and Mr. Peabody & Sherman β revealed details about the ambitious production during a recent interview with media consultant John Dye.
The project is part of what Emmaus Road calls the Parables Project, a long-range initiative to dramatize the roughly 30 to 40 parables of Christ found in scripture. “Not all of those would be producible,” Farrell acknowledged, “but there were several that could be produced as full-length narrative stories.”
The Good Samaritan, the company’s proof of concept, debuted on the Angel platform in early 2026 after passing the Angel Guild with what Farrell described as “a tremendous score.” Its warm reception gave the team the confidence β and the creative mandate β to scale up.
And scale up they did.
For The Ten Virgins, the production team bypassed domestic options, including the Texas sets used by The Chosen, in favor of Morocco β a location Farrell called “a movie Mecca” that has hosted shoots for Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, and most recently Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. The North African country offered what no single U.S. location could: deserts, olive groves, first-century period sets, and an authenticity of extras and environment that stretched every production dollar.
The shoot was not without its hazards. Farrell recounted needing a dedicated snake charmer on set after an Egyptian cobra appeared during production. “That was his job,” Farrell said. “We had at least two occasions where we had snakes visit our set.”
Language barriers between the English-speaking American crew and the Arabic- and French-speaking Moroccan team also presented daily challenges, though Farrell credited local production partner Oz Films with keeping the operation on track.
Director James Dalrymple, who also helmed The Good Samaritan, is steering the creative vision. “There are really three components to media that is successful,” Farrell said, channeling Dalrymple’s philosophy. “It should entertain, it should inspire, and at some level it should educate.”
Emmaus Road is positioning The Ten Virgins not just as entertainment but as an entry point for younger audiences who may never crack open a Bible. “A lot of young people are not picking up a Bible today and reading it,” Farrell said. “Maybe we can help them get into the scriptures through this media.”
A specific release date has not been announced, but all signs point to 2027 as the year Emmaus Road takes this parable to the big screen.
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Tyler Smith
