Plot Summary
Sharing a mutual enthusiasm for history, mythology, and theology are Producer Mark Schwartz and Producer/Director/Writer Giovanni Zelko. Developing a story around the concept of modern science faced with ancient moral and religious dilemmas, Mark and Giovanni found a clever way of introducing universally familiar tales in a new and original light. The root of Theogony is the human struggle to pursue greatness in the eye of failure, as portrayed by the two central figures, Adam and Eve, genetic scientists who struggle with the moral responsibility of unleashing a new era on earth. The Greeks called this human struggle the agon of life. It is this element which separates man from god, the fragile mortality which humans combat in the face of greatness… and thus unfolds Theogony, a tale of modern day characters taken from ancient Greek and Biblical stories: Atlas, Heracles, Prometheus, Atlantis, and Adam & Eve.
The film Theogony is not unlike the epic poem Theogony by Hesiod, (700 B.C.) in that it is not merely a composition of the origin of divine beings, but is also an account of the origin of the universe, a cosmogony. These religious and scientific concepts and metaphors were developed over many months between Mark and Giovanni in pursuit of telling a unique and compelling story. From that ether would be shaped a tangible screenplay that is today's Theogony- a new classic in the making.
Historically, there is a creation myth for every culture and every period of human history across the globe. Many are similar, some are intricately different. Most of these once-thriving"religions" are now simply studied as mythology. Perhaps, in some distant future, the famous Greek mythological beings such as Zeus, Apollo, and Heracles will share pages in the same mythology textbook with modern religious figures such as Buddha, Krishna, Yowee, Christ, and Mohammed. Only time will tell.
Intelligent Design: every culture in the history of mankind has some form of myth which helps to explain the unexplainable: how did the universe begin? What is the universe? What is man's role in it? Is there a single being who created the mind-numbing expanse of space, or were there many beings who worked together? Is there a God? What is God? Are there many Gods? What is Man? How was man created? Is he the creation of divine beings or simply an evolutionary cosmic "accident" found only here on earth? These questions and more have always haunted man and will probably continue to do so indefinitely. Science and Religion have always directly or indirectly challenged one another. Fundamentally, as the current debate rages on in universities, churches, and communities around the globe, we are posed with a simple question: does the universe function out of Chaos or is there an Intelligent Design behind the endless cycle of creation and destruction?
The Greek polytheistic religions of 2,500 years ago ran into these same questions as our modern monotheistic religions do today. In the face of indisputable science, can mankind retain it's faith in ancient and out-dated religions? Will these religions evolve to deal with the new cultural/scientific challenges of the past 100 years? Will governments around the world embrace a new period of enlightenment in pursuing potentially anti-religious scientific research and practices such as the use of Stem-Cells or even Cloning to benefit medical advancement? How far will genetic research go before, if ever, religion will become undermined and irrelevant? In this light, the film "Theogony" engages moral theological questions and forces us to take a look at our historical past, our religious present, and our scientific future.
