How to shock a Satanist

I wish I could be like actors and pretend to be bored by press junkets, but the truth is I love the attention. My job as a Hollywood writer and producer mainly involves sitting in front of a computer and shouting at my kids, so free drinks, launch parties and people telling you how great you are is the perfect antidote to a room filled with empty Monster Munch packets and that urine sample you were meant to hand in to the doctor. Writers are such terrible narcissists. We not only expect complete strangers to be fascinated by our every thought; we want them to pay for the privilege. You can imagine how much we relish poor journalists being forced to listen to us talk about ourselves for days on end.

Last week, we released a new Netflix series called The Chosen One, a six-part drama about a 12-year-old boy who discovers he’s no ordinary kid but in fact the returned Jesus Christ. It’s based on an apocalyptic comic book I wrote almost 20 years ago. The head of our Latin American division suggested we shift the setting to Mexico, where a faith-based storyline about Jesus and the Antichrist would have ten times the power of my original Chicago suburb. It was a brilliant decision and I’d love to take the credit as it has allowed us to craft something truly beautiful for a market that’s still religious. In this secular world, I fear most Americans would think this Jesus guy is a hot Spanish dancer from their favourite reality show.

The US has a reputation for being a God-fearing nation, but the sad truth is that an Exorcist or an Omen wouldn’t penetrate their culture in the same way today. I attended a dinner in the Hollywood Hills a few years ago when the subject of religion came up.