SANTA MONICA, Calif. — More people can name the ingredients in a Big Mac than list the Ten Commandments.

That’s the finding of a widely touted survey conducted by Kelton Research: Of the 1,000 people queried, 80% knew that the leading burger at McDonald’s contains two all-beef patties, and 62% knew it contained pickles.

But less than half of those surveyed were familiar with seven of the Ten Commandments.

A new motion picture company is setting out to change that.

On Oct. 19, Promenade Pictures released the animated film The Ten Commandments in more than 750 theaters nationwide. It is the first in the company’s “Epic Stories of the Bible” series of 12 Bible-based films the company plans to produce and distribute.

The Ten Commandments features a star-studded cast, including the voices of Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley as the narrator, Christian Slater as Moses, Alfred Molina as Ramses and Elliott Gould as the voice of God.

Gould said that a consciousness of his own mortality inspired him to take the part.

“I’m a father and a grandfather. … I’m older now and recognize my own mortality and have acquired some degree of perspective and focus in my existence,” he said during an Oct. 2 press conference. “I would hope that to renew, restore and strengthen our resolve in relation to ethics and morals can help to pave the way to make for peace and harmony in the world.”

Promenade Pictures, founded in 2003, is dedicated to producing family films with Judeo-Christian themes. It’s headed up by Frank Yablans, formerly with Paramount and MGM.

“Frank wanted to create quality films that families could go to together,” said David Hickey, vice president of development for Promenade. “This is our first of 12 films in the Epic series.”

The Ten Commandments will be followed by Noah’s Ark and David and Goliath in 2009. Hickey added that there would be a total of six films featuring stories from the Old Testament and six from the New Testament.

Motive Entertainment, the company that provided marketing for The Passion of the Christ and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has teamed up with Promenade for The Ten Commandments.

“We like working on movies with superheroes,” said Paul Lauer, president of Motive. “We worked with Jesus in The Passion, Aslan in Narnia … and now Moses, who is perhaps the greatest superhero of the Old Testament.”

The Voice of God

Screenwriter Ed Naha, who wrote the script for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, said that it was important for him to write something that was faithful to Scripture.

“Everyone thinks of Moses as Charlton Heston … and many people who think they know the story of the Ten Commandments actually know the De Mille movie, as opposed to what’s in the Bible,” said Naha. “We had to find a personality for Moses, who was actually a very reluctant prophet. He tries to talk himself out of a job. It’s literally a leap of faith for Moses to accept the job of being God’s voice.”

Gould said it wasn’t nearly so difficult for him to accept being God’s voice in the film.

“It was a very humbling and important opportunity,” he said. “It’s a great responsibility in relation to a history, tradition, and the faith of so many people to bring one’s voice to something as significant as that which God represents in this story and beyond.”

Comparing the film to the last animated movie about Moses — The Prince of Egypt — the film’s producer said that this film isn’t as heavy and dark.

“It’s much different,” said Cindy Bond, president of Promenade and the film’s producer. “That film ended with the parting of the Red Sea. That’s halfway through our movie. Ours is completely CGI [computer-generated imagery]. There’s some humor, and our God is a loving God.”

The filmmakers have partnered with groups such as the Ten Commandments Commission and Project Moses to ensure that the message of the film has a long-lasting impact beyond the film’s 88 minutes.

“The movie is the answer to events taking place right now within Western society as a whole,” said Ron Wexler, president of the Ten Commandments Commission, a non-profit set up in response to court rulings and lawsuits against public displays of the Decalogue. “The removal of public prayers from the educational environment, [the removal of] the public display of the Ten Commandments, the devaluation of the sanctity of human life and the attempt to remove any reference to God is all symbolized now in putting back the Ten Commandments in the heart and soul of this nation.”

Wexler is working toward having House Resolution 598 voted on in November by Congress. The resolution would make the first Sunday in May “Ten Commandments Sunday.”

Putting the Word of God Back

Nine-year-old Zack Goodman recognizes the value of the Ten Commandments. He wanted to put the first monument dedicated to the commandments up in the state of Montana because he felt that if people knew them it might bring an end to abortion. He was turned down by one local fraternal organization and three local Catholic schools. The local Catholic high school was willing to put the monument up, but didn’t want Goodman mentioning the school’s name in his fundraising.

“They didn’t want us to mention the school because they thought it would take money from the football field that they were trying to fundraise for,” said Goodman, who decided to turn elsewhere. “We didn’t want to break one of the commandments in putting them up.”

In the end, his parish priest at Blessed Sacrament Church in Black Eagle, Mont., agreed to put the monument up. Over the weekend of Sept. 8-9, Goodman spoke after two Masses.

While he didn’t raise enough money to cover the total cost of a monument, Project Moses saw to it that he got a monument. It was shipped to the parish on Oct. 16.

Project Moses is an Omaha-based non-profit that helps people to learn more about the Ten Commandments. It also provides personal plaques for people’s homes, larger monuments for public display, and is working toward having a national monument placed in Washington, D.C.

Of the 350 monuments that have been put up nationwide, Joe Worthing, executive director of Project Moses, said that between 85%-90% have been placed on Catholic property.

“Many haven’t seen the commandments since they were studying for first Communion,” said Worthing. “The commandments take up 100 pages in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, yet people don’t know them.”

Project Moses is planning to do cross-promoting with Promenade Pictures to help educate movie viewers about the Decalogue.

As part of that, they are making available a Ten Commandments curriculum created by Boys Town and hope to have an insert placed into the film’s DVD release.

“This battle isn’t about putting up monuments, but putting people in regular contact with the commandments,” said Worthing. “People come up in front of the antithesis of the commandments every day.”

Tim Drake is based in

St. Joseph, Minnesota.