While on his way to visit “The Chosen” set, Jerry B. Jenkins wedged a moment in his hectic schedule to answer questions about working with his son, Dallas Jenkins, the creator behind the hit biblical drama.
Jenkins has always carved away ample space for his three children.
As a young father, before Dallas was born, Jenkins and his wife established a rigid policy to ensure he created enough time to spend with his kids.
During post-work hours at home, the emerging author set aside freelance writing and other projects and committed his attention to his children until they got into bed. “That time would be theirs with me, because I believe kids spell love T-I-M-E," the elder Jenkins explained.
Jenkins’ commitment to prioritizing and supporting his children persisted during their young adult years. While riding the success of his bestselling book series, “Left Behind‚" Jenkins financed several of his son’s early films — “I’ve always thought everything he did was brilliant,” he said.
Now, Dallas Jenkins is making room for his father.
As “The Chosen” rapidly grew in popularity, Jenkins “immediately recognized” how remarkable his son’s series was, and began searching for a way in.
“I felt as if I were pressing my nose up against the glass, asking if I could play too,” Jenkins recalled. “(Dallas) was happy to have me write a novel to accompany each season.”
For the self-described “mono-gifted” writer, novelizing “The Chosen” season by season was a natural extension of his previous work. Jenkins has authored more than 200 books, the bulk of which are futuristic, apocalyptic fiction.
But Jenkins’ work also includes a chunk of biblical-based historical fiction, such as his novella “Holding Heaven,” which touches on the relationship between Jesus and Joseph, and two novels based on the life of the Apostle Paul — so the “Chosen” novels are a project well within his wheelhouse.
Following the release of Season 5 of “The Chosen,” Jenkins released his fifth novel based on the series, “The Chosen: Not My Will…," which he hopes will deepen the audience’s understanding of the biblical stories and characters shared in the TV series.
Today, after enjoying decades of success as a writer, Jenkins feels more than comfortable taking a momentary ride on his son’s coattails.
“Naturally, I couldn’t be prouder,” Jenkins said of his son’s explosive success. “I love that Dallas used to be known as Jerry Jenkins’ son, and now I’m known as Dallas Jenkins’ father. May it ever be so.”
Raising children in a ‘storyteller’s home’
Dallas Jenkins took an interest in telling stories about Jesus from a young age, his father recalled. As a kid raised in a “storyteller’s home,” Dallas overheard his father predicting television plots and dissecting filmmaking techniques.
Like his father, he had a natural knack for storytelling, and would create imaginative scenarios about Jesus’ childhood to share with his family, touching on what Jesus’ dynamic with siblings might have looked like and filling in blanks on other childhood milestones.
But as a young kid, he had his sights set on becoming a sportscaster. His plans changed after an experience at the movie theater with his father.
As the older Jenkins remembers it, he took a newly teenaged Dallas Jenkins to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” starring Jack Nicholson. The young Jenkins was so impressed with Nicholson’s performance and the creativity of the film that his dreams of becoming a sportscaster were overshadowed with a new goal.
“When we left that movie, Dallas said, ‘I don’t know what that was, but it’s what I want to do.’ He never looked back,” Jenkins recalled.
Jenkins majored in theater at Northwestern College and went straight into filmmaking after graduation. His father financed several of his early film projects, which provided the pair with complete control over the content before searching for distribution.
“His work was good enough to garner interest from the biggest Hollywood distributors,” Jenkins said.
When Dallas Jenkins started his work on “The Chosen,” decades of support from his father set him up to go after the project independently.
The success of the series proved what the older Jenkins had long believed to be true: His son had the skills and talent required to become a thriving filmmaker.
More than 280 million viewers in 175 countries have seen the series. The biblical drama has been translated into over 75 different languages. And the most recent season, Season 5, was theatrically released in more than 40 global territories.
“I truly believed (’The Chosen’) would be huge, but of course no one could have anticipated the international phenomenon it has become,” the older Jenkins said.
Jenkins believes his son’s series is a universal hit because the story of Jesus “applies to everyone.”
“The same realism and authenticity that makes it work in America seems to make it resonate everywhere,” he added. “Specifically emphasizing Jesus’ humanity, along with his divinity, has brought it to life for viewers. Most Jesus movies and TV shows depict Jesus’ divinity so ethereally that they miss that He would have had a sense of humor, disciples who were also friends and human emotions.”
Novelizing ‘The Chosen’
As “The Chosen” has expanded its audience, so has the series’ brand, with merchandise, a “Chosen” Bible study guide, upcoming “Chosen” spinoff series such as “The Chosen Adventures,” and an exclusive streaming deal with Amazon Prime Video.
The expanding brand of “The Chosen” opened space for Jenkins to novelize the content in a way that built upon and broadened the stories and characters shared in the series.
Jenkins novelizes “The Chosen” series in reverse of the typical order — the biblical drama comes first, and the books follow. His books mirror what happens on screen rather than reiterating the events of the Bible.
When prepping to write the books, Jenkins will watch and rewatch the series dozens of times to ensure he accurately depicts the biblical events as told by his son, while expanding the story in ways that feel authentic to the biblical drama.
During his first attempt at novelizing the series, Jenkins had a rigid process and essentially copy-pasted the content from the series into the book. His son told him to exercise more creative freedom.
“Dallas and his co-writers reminded me that they wanted me on this project to bring added value — more characters, more imagined scenes, more inner monologue, etc.,” Jenkins said. “So I went back to the drawing board and felt great freedom to break free and do just that.”
To elaborate on characters and dialogues created by his son for the series, Jenkins adds monologues, narration and emotions not found in “The Chosen” to the novels. For major fans of “The Chosen,” the books provide an extra layer of content they might be craving, but the series does not have screen time for.
He doesn’t work closely with his son on the project, though Jenkins will visit “The Chosen” set several times during filming and participate in online theological discussions with Dallas and his team of advisers.
But Dallas trusts his father to tackle each novel without intense guidance. Perhaps that is because Jenkins’ reputation for writing precedes him. He has written 21 New York Times bestsellers and succeeded with a variety of topics, including faith-based, futuristic thrillers and ghostwriting autobiographies.
Even with of decades of writing experience, novelizing “The Chosen” has impacted Jenkins in a special way. The project has “opened a whole new world to me,” Jenkins said.
“Like most Bible readers, for most of my life I envisioned the disciples as pretty much all the same person,” Jenkins said. “‘The Chosen’ shows them as the young men and women they really were, devout but also petty, childish, jealous, backsliders — people I can identify with! Now I see those character actors when I read the New Testament."
He continued, “I recognize that very few writers — including many far more gifted than I — enjoy the kind of a career I have been blessed with. So I’m grateful. But rather than being remembered for that, I hope I’m thought of as a good husband, father and grandfather."