Sony Preps Animated Nativity Flick ‘The Lamb’

Sony Pictures Animation is hopping on to the recent rising trend of faith-based flicks by developing The Lamb — an animated take on Christianity’s Nativity tale, according to The Wrap. DeVon Franklin, a well known motivational speaker and preacher who has appeared on Oprah, is producing under his new company Franklin Entertainment.

Based on a pitch by one Tom Sheridan, The Lamb will strive to balance heart-felt sentiment and family-friendly comedy and will feature an all-animal cast. SPA’s Michelle Raimo Kouyate, Jenny Marchick and Daniel Inkeles will steer the project for the studio.

Faith-based entertainment has straddled the line between believer-only audiences and general appeal recently, with Hollywood and independent producers on a mission hoping to tap the 90 million-some market of Evangelical Christians in the U.S. The last major animation studio film inspired by the Good Book was DreamWorks’ 2D The Prince of Egypt (1998), which told the story of Moses and grossed $101.4 million in theaters.