00:00What inspired you to adapt this biblical tale for television?
00:07That's a great question.
00:08I fell in love with this story first,
00:11that spark of curiosity, when I was 16 years old.
00:15I went to Israel with my dad and my first camera.
00:18He bought me a camera with money he didn't have,
00:20and we went to all these ancient sites.
00:22And I just...
00:26These ancient stories kind of sprang to life.
00:29And I remember going to the tomb of King David
00:33and being like, who was this guy?
00:35That 3,000 years later, we're still singing his songs
00:40and telling his story.
00:41And this term, David and Goliath,
00:44has become synonymous with the underdog
00:46and the hero's journey and destiny.
00:50And so I just got very curious at that young age.
00:53And so my entire career as a filmmaker
00:56has been sort of trying to develop the skills necessary
01:00to let someone say yes to me telling the story of David.
01:05And so I'm very grateful that I'm getting to do that now.
01:09And it's a dream come true,
01:13and a project that I deeply love.
01:15And, you know, I look forward to audiences seeing it.
01:19How did you manage to put together
01:22such a diverse and talented cast?
01:27The cast is amazing.
01:28We consider this a show for the world,
01:31and the cast is from all over the world.
01:34And I think that, you know,
01:38we try to tell the story in an epic way,
01:40but at the end of the day, it's the real humanity
01:43and the performance of the characters
01:45that I love the most.
01:47And the cast is literally from all over the world.
01:50And it's a wonderful group of people.
01:55Many actors from Israel, from the Middle East, from Spain,
01:58many from the UK, from France.
02:00Like, you know, it's just this wonderful ensemble
02:03of voices from all over the world,
02:05and they do a marvelous job on screen.
02:08And I love the actors.
02:10You know, I love the time that we get to spend together
02:15and they really do a great job in the series.
02:19Biggest challenge for you,
02:21creating, writing, directing, the whole thing?
02:25Yeah, well, you know, you try to lead a team of people.
02:29I'm one member of a team.
02:31There's almost 700 people working on the show.
02:35And, you know, that starts with my creative partnership
02:39with John Gunn, an amazing filmmaker, and the cast.
02:42I think the hardest part was finding David.
02:45We looked for months and months and months,
02:47looked at thousands of people.
02:49And the moment we found Michael,
02:52we all just knew this is our guy.
02:54And that was probably the biggest hurdle
02:57and biggest challenge.
02:58I could not be more proud of him
03:01and all that he accomplishes through the series.
03:04He does a marvelous job.
03:06You know, what's very interesting about the, you know,
03:08the hundred years of cinema
03:11is that when you think about other biblical events
03:14like the parting of the Red Sea,
03:15the life of Jesus, the crucifixion,
03:17you know, there's a lot of iconic portrayals.
03:21You know, Cecil B. DeMille has, you know.
03:25With David, there's not really as much.
03:28There are portrayals, but there's not as many of them.
03:33And so I really wanted to bring David and Goliath
03:37to the screen in a way that was unique
03:39and maybe in a way that had not been done before.
03:42And certainly it was so amazing.
03:44I'm a feature film director.
03:46It was amazing to be able to do this as a television series
03:49to spend eight hours just exploring David's young life.
03:55And you could really explore the character.
03:57So by the time you got to the Valley of Allah
03:59and the standoff between David and Goliath,
04:02you had explored so many characters
04:04in a way that you can't do in a movie.
04:07And I really, really enjoyed that process.
04:09It was wonderful.
04:11It was a lot of hard work, but I really enjoyed it.
04:14I guess as a filmmaker with any project,
04:17you learn something new.
04:19What have you learned making House of David?
04:23I've learned that television is a lot of work.
04:27But I think I've also learned that, you know,
04:34it's a wonderful thing to step beyond your fear
04:38to something you feel called to do.
04:40That's what David did.
04:41When he stepped out to face Goliath,
04:43he stepped out in spite of his fear.
04:45He would have been terrified.
04:47And yet he stepped out into his calling,
04:49into his destiny.
04:50And I think whenever you're called to do something
04:54that's big, it will scare you.
04:56But the idea is to...
04:58Courage is not the absence of fear.
05:00Courage is the ability to step beyond your fear
05:02because of what you're passionate about.
05:05And I think that's what I learned from the story.
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