were joint American/Italian productions. During this period most of the major stories in the Old Testament were put on film, some multiple times. Epics such as Sodom and Gomorrah, The Story of Ruth, David and Goliath, Solomon and Sheba, and Esther and the King dominated the box office. In 1966, 20th Century Fox and Italian producer Dino DeLaurentiis made the first attempt to produce a series of films based on the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The Bible: In the Beginning, based largely on the book of Genesis, was to have been the first of these films, but financial challenges cancelled further films. Forty-seven years later, Hearst Corporation and producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett created their own reimagining of the story via a TV miniseries, The Bible, thus finally fulfilling DeLaurentiis' original 1966 vision. The box office failure King David, was released in 1985. New Testament/Christian Bible The New Testament was less frequently turned into major motion pictures. Unlike the Old Testament, the New Testament has few action scenes and little romance. During the 1950s, most of the films recounting Jesus' life were financed by church groups and played in churches. These were often film versions of the traditional Passion Play. At this time there were some successful films that involved Jesus, but they put him at a distance from the central characters and were based on novels rather than the Bible. These included the sequel to 1953's The Robe, Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), and the 1959 remake film Ben-Hur. In 1966, Pier Paolo Pasolini filmed The Gospel According to St. Matthew in southern Italy with a cast of non-professional actors. Despite Pasolini's atheism and Marxism, the film was praised by the Pope for its faithfulness. The revisionist The Last Temptation of Christ, the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, and the parody Life of Brian were all major films of the 1970s and 1980s. These films generated controversy, but were financially successful. Film versions of the Book of Revelation such as The Late Great Planet Earth and The Seventh Sign were made, which had been uncommon in an earlier era. During this period more reverent works were produced, but often appeared as television miniseries or released directly to video. The success of The Passion of the Christ led to new Bible films being commissioned including Mary, Son of Man, Color of the Cross, The Ten Commandments, and