‘Journey to Bethlehem’ Writer/Director/Composer Adam Anders On His Fresh Take for the Nativity Story

Adam Anders is the director, writer, and composer for the Christmas movie Journey to Bethlehem, premiering nationally in theaters today. The film tells the traditional Nativity story but tells it in a unique way. It adds comedy and music to make it more universal while remaining true to the Biblical story.

Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Adam Anders shares his reasoning behind this take on the classic Nativity story and why it stayed with him for so long. He also reveals how the three wise men became the Three Stooges for him. Plus, he unveils why Antonio Banderas loves playing a villain.

Awards Daily: What was your reason for making this story your first feature film?

Adam Anders: It’s a long story. I first had the idea 17 years ago but life has its ups and downs and so many things happened in those years. You know, as a creative you have a lot of ideas, some stick, some don’t. This was one that I just couldn’t let go of. I just knew I wanted to make this movie at some point. It just seems that the time is now, obviously. It’s coming out and it feels surreal. But, you know, I couldn’t make it 17 years ago, but it was that idea that started a seed and it has grown, and I’ve learned so much over the years working with amazing people. It’s kind of like I went to film school for the last 17 years and now here we are.


Awards Daily: You took a well-known story, but you’ve added the dynamic of making it into a comedy and a musical. What was behind those creative choices?

Adam Anders: It was on a fateful Christmas where I couldn’t find anything to watch, and I had this idea in the first place, that I realized nobody’s really done this. Now I kind of know why because it’s really hard. But the story is really important to me; I grew up in a Christian home and my parents were ministers. It’s a story I love and my wife and I love Christmas; we write songs together and we always have writing partners around. So I thought, why hasn’t anybody done this, number one. Number two, I think that it looks and feels the way it does is because most Biblical movies are really depressing. It’s staff, sandals, sheep, and dirt–that is what you get, no color at all. I just didn’t want to do that. I wanted to make a vibrant, colorful, fun movie for the whole family. Something that kids will lean into and frankly something everyone will love who loves music, holidays, and just fun family movies. I didn’t make it just for Christians. I made it for everybody and I think framing it this way–colorful, vibrant, fun, with great music, is digestible for everybody, not just a few people.


Awards Daily: One of my favorite comedic beats in the film is the dynamic between the three wise men. What was the thought process in creating their very quirky personalities?

Adam Anders: From the beginning I knew I had a love story with Mary and Joseph, which is kind of Romeo and Juliet, the original forbidden love. He shouldn’t have stayed with her but he did. Did they marry for love or duty? Those questions motivate them in the film. Then I have Herod as the villain. But what every good family movie needs is comedy and to laugh. So to break up this story, which can get heavy and reverent at times, I need that mechanism and the wise men were perfect options for that. My Three Stooges. I think Biblically the wise men didn’t show up when I have them show up. But I think everyone has accepted them in the Nativity scene, even though we know that’s not exactly what happened. We’ve accepted it as an artistic expression of this moment in history. So I felt I could take that license. By having them there when he is born, I could have them the whole movie and get comic relief the whole time when I needed it. I know they didn’t show up right then, but as a very famous filmmaker told me, “Nobody will remember this movie if the timeline is accurate. They will remember it if it’s great. ”


Awards Daily: You talked about Joseph and Mary’s relationship, and I thought it was interesting that they have the comedic romance tropes. They have a meet cute, but they have a misunderstanding, including the virgin impregnation. Plus, Mary is very reluctant to even get married–that it would take away from her life. How did you decide to take on these aspects of their relationship?

Adam Anders: I think it is knowing that they got together but we do not know where or how. So that is where I got to explore. I call those in-betweens where you have your Bible verses Matthew:1 and 2 and Luke:1 and 2–that is all you have. The Bible doesn’t talk at all about their relationship, so I got to play in those in-betweens, and that was really fun because I got to just tell a human story, a love story. I imagined Mary, who is very strong, that God chose the strongest woman that He could find and not a doormat. She had a POV and she felt that something was happening. And that she was born for something big, and she did not think it was to get betrothed to someone she wasn’t in love with and didn’t know. I think every girl can relate to wanting to marry for love, not duty, so I started there. Joseph is actually in the same boat; he has also been betrothed and he has his dreams too. So there is tension there between their dreams and what they have been pushed into. I think that makes for a really good story.


Awards Daily: So, this will show my Biblical ignorance, but Herod’s son Antipater has a very big role in the film. He is someone who looks up to his father and his father’s strength but also not certain he wants to be a complete copy of his father. Was there a historical reference for him, or was that something just kind of made up for the film?

Adam Anders: Both. The Bible doesn’t reference Antipater but history does. He was Herod the Great’s first born son. He was raised in Rome and he was killed by his father the same year Jesus was born. Antipater tried to overthrow his father, believing he was unfit to rule, and that was why Herod killed him. I thought it was interesting that if I needed a villain with boots on the ground this is a really great character that I could find redemption in. I wanted to tell a redemption story but I couldn’t do it with Herod’s actual heir Antipas, who was even worse than his father and not redeemable. But what if Antipater (SPOILER) met Mary and Jesus and couldn’t kill him? So that’s where that came from and it was great because I could create a lot of tension there and create the story of redemption, which is really what the Christmas story is about.

Awards Daily: A big promotional part about this movie is that Antonio Banderas is playing Herod. Who looks like he is having the time of his life in this role, being this almost purely evil man. What was it like working with him?

Adam Anders: I love that you said that because that’s literally what he said to me. That he had the time of his life doing this. It was a real process getting him into the movie. You know he is this big movie star, and he was at the top of my list for three years, and it was like a dream to have him. But it was really hard to get to him because he was directing and starring in a play. So while his manager and he liked the script, they believed that the songs were too hard for him to sing, and he had this play so he couldn’t do it. But as luck would have it, he was doing the play in Madrid where I was prepping the film. So that opened the door, and I started going to the play trying to meet with him. To see if I could get enough time with him after the show to get him over the top to say yes. Long story short, going to the show many times, he came out and met with me and I had five minutes to convince him, and we hit it off creatively.

I was able to quash his fears about singing the songs because I had a piano on my phone and I was playing the notes that he was singing live in his show and they were the notes of my song. So I was, like, you can sing the song because you’re singing it every night. His one question for me was, do I get to play the bad guy? He very much wanted to play the bad guy. I was, like, yes, you do. And he embraced it and he had a lot of fun with it. He is completely unhinged. He goes from this childish almost campy/goofy rock star Mick Jagger of the time (which is how I envisioned him), then he just switches to evil just like that. That is really hard for an actor to do, and he does it so well. I think he is phenomenal in the movie and he loved playing this character, and it’s so fun to hear you say that that came through.


Awards Daily: You are well known for doing music in television and movies. What is it about doing music in these mediums that appeals to you so much?

Adam Anders: That is a great question. First of all I love movies. I’m a huge fan of the medium. And I grew up in a musical family so music was always part of my life, and obviously that’s the part of my career that took off first. But all those years of having success in music I felt like something was missing. I am not really a malcontent. I’m very happy for the success I’ve had and I think it’s well-documented what those things are. I’m like, yeah, it’s great, and yet I found myself wondering why I’m not more excited about this. I think it was because I wanted to tell my stories, and tell the entire story. Writing songs is limiting, Or I would create a show and write a script and you hand it over to someone and they take it and it doesn’t become what you hoped it would be. So finally when I agreed to direct this, and I was on set doing that, it was like, oh my gosh, I found the thing. This is the thing I’ve been looking for that completes me creatively. I feel like I use all my passions and talents in the same place. So it has been a long journey, loving movies, loving music, and so what makes more sense than doing musicals?


Awards Daily: Final thoughts?

Adam Anders: I would just say the movie comes out November 10 worldwide in theaters. The soundtrack comes out on Capitol Records on November 3rd so check that out. They can go to our website to buy tickets in advance. A cool thing we are doing with Fandango that has never been done is you can scan a QR code, and you can donate tickets to people in need who can’t afford to go to the movies. Which is kind of the spirit of the movie: giving back and giving gifts for Christmas.