The sequel to last year's popular "The Bible" miniseries on NBC is currently filming in Morocco, and the cast and crew were inspired to find a sign from God in the form of a cross above the set.
The sign, seen above as a symbol of the Holy cross in the clouds, was snapped by actress and executive producer Roma Downey. "There they could see clouds had formed in a completely blue sky in the perfect shape of a cross," Downey said after the cross symbol was first spotted by actors Adam Levy and Babou Ceesay. "Everyone was stunned and filming stopped, as iPhones came out and everyone was snapping pictures."
The new 12-episode series, entitled "A.D.," is the project of executive producers and husband-and-wife team Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. After the success of the couple's "The Bible" series from last year, NBC agreed to the sequel.
"It certainly energized a tired, hardworking crew for the rest of the day and reminded everyone that we were being watched over as we are working hard to bring the Book of Acts to the screen," Downey said of the cross-shaped clouds.
When the actress shared the image with friend and pastor Joel Hunter, he quickly reminded her of the verse in Acts 2:19 that states, "I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke."
But this isn't the first time a proposed sign from God has blessed the set of a Roma Downey and Mark Burnett production. While filming "The Bible" in 2012, three seperate events convinced the duo that "the hand of God was on this," as Burnett said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
While filming the scene where Jesus (played by Diogo Morgado) was speaking with Nicodemus, he said that the Holy Spirit was like the wind, referrencing John 3:8. At that moment, Burnett describes, "a wind, like as if a 747 was taking off, blew his hair, almost blew the set over and sustained for 20 seconds across the desert."
Another time, during the scene where John the Baptist was baptising Jesus in the river, a piece of actor Morgado's costume detatched and floated down the river, thought never to be seen again. But Burnett describes something he thought miraculous. "Four days later, a kid showed up from many, many, many miles away, who had been seeking us through the desert to return this to us. He didn't know what it was why he should seek us, but he felt he had to return it."
Another story revolves around a strange circumstance with snakes during the crucifixion scene. The producers had hired a snake wrangler to remove wild snakes that may show up during filming in the desert mountains, but during that particular scene, the wrangler reportedly removed 48 lethal snakes. A usual day was said to produce only one or two snakes for removal.
A.D. is planned to premiere on April 15 (Easter Sunday), 2015 on NBC.
