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![]() Mark Burnett and Roma Downey on the set of "The Bible," the 10-hour miniseries Burnett produced and directed.
March 2nd, 2013
11:00 PM ET
Reality TV Goliath takes up Bible miniseries challenge, hopes for better outcomeBy Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN) - Mark Burnett is the king of reality television. His shows and spinoffs command hours of prime-time television real estate. The seal of his production company One Three Media appears at the end of “Survivor,” “The Voice,” “The Apprentice,” “Shark Tank,” “The Job” and “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” He will tell you each show was No. 1 in the time slot. He will tell you he will take on all comers in his bare-knuckle, ratings-driven world and beat them. He will tell you on any given day he has 150 video-editing systems churning through edits on his dossier, which spans the three major broadcast networks. But if you suggest he may not have the chops to take on a massive scripted dramatic presentation of the Bible as a 10-hour miniseries, his eyes will tell you he wants to throttle you. My bad. Burnett and wife, Roma Downey, have been barnstorming the country like roving preachers on horseback trying to evangelize the West. Their gospel is spreading the news of “The Bible” - their ambitious project that aims to tell the story of the Bible in 10 installments. It begins its weeklong premiere on the History Channel Sunday night.
We met in the lobby of the Washington Hilton the night before last month’s National Prayer Breakfast. They were in town to speak to Washington journalists and show clips from their project. Burnett and Downey’s project tackles the narrative of the Bible, a story woven through 66 books of the Old Testament and New Testament. It’s a story revered by billions as divine revelation – and one they’ve compressed into 10 hours of television. What could possibly go wrong? A lot. Many have taken aim at dramatizing the stories of the Bible. Few of those productions stood the test of time. They knew all that going in 3 1/2 years ago when “the light bulb went off,” as Downey puts it. “It’s been a great fun journey right, Roma?” Burnett said to his wife of nearly six years. “And we’re still talking to each other,” Downey said, smiling. Both Downey and Burnett were raised Catholic, Burnett in England and Downey in Ireland. They still regularly attend Mass in Los Angeles. Growing up, both watched the classic Biblical films that the Hollywood of yesteryear churned out, like “The Ten Commandments” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter “In Ireland, we used to sit up and wait for John Wayne to say, ‘Surely that man was the Son of God,’ at the end of 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' every Easter,” Downey said, with her thick Irish brogue dipping into a delightfully terrible John Wayne impersonation. After showing their kids "The Ten Commandments" with Charlton Heston, their three teenagers had one request for the Bible project. They told their parents, “Please don’t make it lame.” Making it work The project is personal for Burnett and Downey, coming from a deep spiritual desire for more people to see and experience the stories of their faith. As Europeans, now naturalized U.S. citizens, they are stunned the Bible is not taught in public schools. “It was time for an updating. Adding fresh visual life to a sacred text,” Burnett said. “People have great hearts and great knowledge but no experience of filmmaking and no budgets,” Burnett said of past telling of the stories on film and television. “Or the resources,” Downey chimed in. “We wanted to create something that was gritty and authentic. We certainly didn’t want everyone to look like they stepped out of the dry cleaners.” [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wir4fH6hUxw&list=UUt_Q-xP9pUFpalCF-e_ZhtA&index=18] Burnett and Downey may not have been high on the list of many studios as producers and directors to put a massive scripted project like this together. "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" starring Donald Trump and Gary Busey is not exactly" Ben-Hur," and Adam Levine and Cee Lo Green spinning in chairs on the singing competition "The Voice" isn’t often (or ever) compared to the "Ten Commandments." When I asked Burnett about this, he seemed genuinely insulted. “Based on viewership, maybe I should be giving a few lessons to the people who are doing stories. Because we have five nights of No. 1 wins on prime-time television,” he started. “As a family we’ve made over 2,000 hours of American television and 8,000 worldwide.” As he cooled down, ticking off a list of reasons why he and his wife were best suited for the job, he delved into how this project was made. The production, he insisted, was a lot more like the production that goes into "Survivor" than nearly any feature film or television show in production. "Survivor" typically includes a cast and crew of 400 people in a remote location with multiple helicopters and boats. To film the Bible series, they set off for the southern tip of Morocco in Africa with a similar-size crew and hundreds of extras. Not to mention the chariots and horses. “It was epic,” Downey said. “Our experience with large-scale productions was very, very important,” Burnett said. To help further bring the story to life, they brought in Lola, an Oscar-winning CGI team from London who created similar scenes for the film "Gladiator." They went with an international ensemble for the cast because they didn’t want to distract the audience with recognizable celebrities. Jesus was played by Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado. Many other actors came from the Theatre District in London. The most recognizable face to most in North America will be Downey herself, who stepped into the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary is portrayed in the series as a young woman at the Nativity, then later in life. “It was a privilege to play it,” Downey said. For nine seasons, Downey starred in the CBS show “Touched by an Angel,” then went on to star in a number of TV movies. “The scripts at one point just said Young Mary, and then as the scripts progressed it said Old Mary. I said, ‘OK, we have to change that right now.’ The last thing I need to see is ‘Old Mary’ played by Roma Downey,” she said with a laugh. “So we changed it to Mother Mary.” The budget for the 10 hours was under $22 million, Burnett said, a small price tag for a production on such a grand scale. (NBC paid $4 million per episode for the show “Smash” this season, according to an estimate by the New York Times) “It’s not easy, even for us, to sell and get placed on prime time television, 10 hours – Genesis to Revelation,” Burnett said. “Do we wish we had 25 or 100 [hours], yes but we got 10. We got a great budget. It looks like it’s a $200 million movie. Of course it’s not. It’s just our combined experiences, our hearts and efforts that make it look like that.” Getting it right As they considered which parts of the Bible to shoot, they had to pare down hundreds of stories. “The first decision was, it’s one story,” Burnett said. “It’s not a series of unconnected stories, it’s one grand narrative.” “You could call it the meta narrative.” The series encompasses five hours of the Old Testament and five hours of the New Testament. They took many artistic liberties to compress the story lines while hoping to remain true to the story. A public relations manager for the project described the liberties to me as “extra-biblical but not contra-biblical.” For instance, in the series opener, the Book of Genesis stories of Adam and Eve and Noah unfold together. Noah and his family are already on the ark while the flood waters batter their boat. To calm his family, Noah tells them the story of creation: “In the beginning! ... ” Noah bellows as he runs around plugging leaks and comforting his family and the animals. Similarly, in the story of David and Goliath, when David heads out to face the giant Philistine foe, he clutches his sling and quietly begins to recite the 23rd Psalm, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.” David is considered the author of the psalm, but nowhere in the text of the David and Goliath story does it address what he said as he walked out to battle and slay Goliath. The dialogue in much of the story is similarly constructed along the lines of the bare-bones text. When Jesus calls Peter to be his disciple, Peter asks, “What are we going to do?” Jesus answers, “We’re going to change the world.” Those lines never appear in the Gospel accounts, but Burnett and Downey insist it is consistent with the text. “Every step of the way we’ve had scholars and theologians working with us,” Downey said. Burnett and Downey consulted a wide range of pastors and academics, including a major evangelical leader and a Catholic cardinal. Their advisory panel consisted of many people from varied backgrounds familiar with sharing the stories of the Bible rather than of a "who’s who" of Biblical academics. Joel Osteen, a popular television preacher and pastor of the 30,000-member Lakewood church in Houston, was among those consulted. Osteen and Burnett are friends and were developing a television series together that went on the back burner during the production of this series. Osteen even took his family to Morocco during some of the filming. “[Burnett] would send scripts our way and ask doctrinal or Bible questions about it, but a lot of it was a friendship and an advisory role,” Osteen said. CNN Belief: Five things we learned from Joel Osteen's visit Osteen said much of his work was confirming if the extrabiblical material stayed true to the Bible. His encouragement to Burnett was to “use your creativity to fill in between the lines.” Another consultant was Rabbi Joshua Garroway, an assistant professor at the Hebrew Union College and an expert on early Christianity and the Second Jewish commonwealth (circa 530 B.C. to 70 A.D.) Judaism. He was a paid consultant on the project. “One of the issues that came up frequently in the comments was the goal of the production was to remain faithful, or at least as faithful as possible, to the narrative and text of the Bible, as opposed to a historical critical approach,” he said. “The series is not meant to be a historical feature but as a representation of the biblical narrative which is at times historical and at times not,” Garroway said. One reason Garroway thought he was brought in was because in parts of the New Testament, “there are less than generous depictions of Jews, Jewish leaders and Jewish traditions.” One of several Jewish scholars involved, his role as a New Testament scholar was to help the production stay faithful to the text but also “diminish as much as possible scenes or statements that could be construed as overly negative toward Jews and Jewish judgment.” While he thinks the project has an overall Christian orientation, “I think they did well.” “I don’t think it will run into the same problems that Mel Gibson’s movie ("The Passion of the Christ") did because the producers have been somewhat conscientious about forestalling some of the things that could produce that effect in the Jewish community,” he said, referring to perceptions of anti-Semitism from the 2004 film. Osteen thinks the project will have a lasting impact in churches. He plans to use pieces of the project in his services to help illustrate points he’ll make in his sermons. “I know I’m biased because I’m their friend, but I think it’ll be something that will live on for generations because it’s done with excellence, not knocking anything else, it’s just this is production 50 years past where some of the other films were made,” he said. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories Burnett and Downey also think this project will be their most lasting and most viewed. Burnett said the couple have deferred all their fees for the project. They probably don’t need the money anyway. Forbes lists Burnett as among its 100 highest-earning celebrities with an estimated income of $55 million in 2012. While the History Channel owns the exclusive North American rights to the project, Burnett and Downey own the rights to global distribution and theatrical airings, which are in the works. There is also a book tie-in, games and apps attached to the project. For the couple, the project was not about turning a profit, though they likely will. Instead, it was about bringing new life to the stories of their faith for a new audience. “Will it be screened in movie theaters? Yes, for sure. "Already been approached. Arenas, churches, every way you can imagine,” Burnett said. Burnett ticked through the shows he and Downey have put together over the years. “Over the next 25 years," he said, "more people will see this than all the others combined.” |
![]() ![]() About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team. |
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I guess the bottom line in whether or not you believe in God is this...once you die, you will be dead for eternity. Have you ever thought about how long eternity will last? Is death the end and nothing else happens or does your soul continue on? Why would you take the chance of not believing in God, waste your time on earth spewing words of disbelief and hatred and risk the possibility of suffering and eternity in hell? I believe there is a Heaven and choose to do everything possible in this extremely short time I have on Earth to ensure I have the best chance possible of making it to Heaven. I will be praying for all you non-believers. May God bless you all.
it's been said a million times, but why are you risking everything by not accepted the Koran?
c4e: "Have you ever thought about how long eternity will last?"
Why does this matter? You'll be dead.
***
"Is death the end and nothing else happens or does your soul continue on?"
Of course there's no soul. Have you ever seen any empirical evidence proving it exists? No? Then it gets no more merit than does Bigfoot.
***
"Why would you take the chance of not believing in God, waste your time on earth spewing words of disbelief and hatred and risk the possibility of suffering and eternity in hell?"
Look up Pascal's Wager.
***
"I believe there is a Heaven and choose to do everything possible in this extremely short time I have on Earth to ensure I have the best chance possible of making it to Heaven. I will be praying for all you non-believers. May God bless you all."
How about using your brain instead? And don't bother praying; that's been proven not to work. How about instead of praying you go out and actually DO something to make the world better instead of wishing it were so?
"God" is a generic word, which "god" from which book are you referring to?
Krishna, Allah, Jehova, Vishnu, etc., etc.?
Only ten installments? That tells me the industry has.."No Faith" in the project. I'd say it'll take closer to 50 installments to at the very least get a very real visual perspective on "The Book". As a Roman Catholic I'd ask, while they're at it, why not make series' about the other religions? Abrahamic, Indian, East Asian, African, Mysticism Etc etc... You want to educate the people then why stop with just one book? This Guy only wants to satisfy his ego, nothing more.
Victor
Good idea, but the others wouldn't sell, religion has ALWAYS been about the cash flow. In my area if a RCC church isn't turning a profit it is closed down and the land sold off, tax free of course.
One of the first comments said that the bible was most probably written by the devil? umm..seriously? If so, He's pretty stupid of a sort to admit that in the end, that God will win, and that he will be forever burning in the lake of fire in Hell. If he were to write it, don't you think that he would lie and say that he, himself, will win over the earth, defeat God, and reign forever?
Also, those of you who refuse to believe, ridicule the bible, and the Christian faith, will soon be shown your stubbornness and lack of faith. The bible says that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord. You may not believe it now, but when your day comes, you will, and you will remember that this girl from Alabama told you so.
What does it hurt to believe? What do you lose?
Id much rather put my trust in a God who loved me so much that He sent His own son to die for me, and believe it, and it be true- than to never believe and miss out on a lifetime in heaven, and forever rot in hell.
YOU GO GIRL!
That is just is there is no proof it was not written by the Devil. The amount of killing the protagonist does alone supports that hypothesis. And no you cannot use what is written because it is all a trick to fool you.
Pascal's wager again girl from Alabama.
Why not worship all the gods just to be safe.
@LAnn: "One of the first comments said that the bible was most probably written by the devil? umm..seriously? If so, He's pretty stupid of a sort to admit that in the end, that God will win"
He said god will win because he lies. Isn't this obvious to you?
***
"If he were to write it, don't you think that he would lie and say that he, himself, will win over the earth, defeat God, and reign forever?"
Hello, McFly...? Satan did write the bible AND he lied about God coming out on the winning end.
***
"Also, those of you who refuse to believe, ridicule the bible, and the Christian faith, will soon be shown your stubbornness and lack of faith. The bible says that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord."
We covered this. Satan wrote the bible and he lies, therefore not every knee will bow. Now that you know Satan wrote the bible you may want to stop relying on it as your only source of knowledge. Crack open a science book, unless Alabama has gone ahead and burned them all...?
***
"You may not believe it now, but when your day comes, you will, and you will remember that this girl from Alabama told you so."
Yeah, yeah, we'll rue the day. Hear it all the time. How will we remember anything after we're dead? You realize that in dying, we by definition no longer have a functioning brain? We won't have any way to remember anything. Use your head Laura.
***
"What does it hurt to believe? What do you lose?"
1) this is Pascal's Wager.
2) what if Muslims are correct and Christians are not? I reckon you'd lose a lot.
3) by blindly following a religion beyond all reason, reason which tells us they are probably all false, we give up a lot of intellectual integrity. It's probably also true that we'd be living in a world of fantasy instead of reality
Known as Pascal's Wager, an inelegant, amateurish and possibly immoral argument for conversion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager
It's inelegant because it's one of the first arguments a religious weasel makes in his sheepish defense of something he doesn't strongly believe in himself. It is amateurish for the same reason. It is immoral because religion considers gambling so, and Pascal's Wager is essentially that an adherent has whittled his reason for faith down to a wager.
***
"Id much rather put my trust in a God who loved me so much that He sent His own son to die for me, and believe it, and it be true- than to never believe and miss out on a lifetime in heaven, and forever rot in hell."
What if you're wrong and Mormons have the true religion? What if Hindus know the only true path?
"Hello, McFly...?" 80s film reference. Classic.
wow, for all these people who know they are smarter than 10,000 years of history and philosophy i ask you this; are you so sure? why is it science cannot disprove what the bible teaches and why does science find the bible accurate everytime it tries to disprove it? but the most important question i have for all these super intellegent people is, why can science not explain the begining of life? since you people are obviously the brilliance in the universe then why don't you explain it rather than mock it
The Bible doesn't "explain the beginning of life," either. It simply claims some invisible being made the universe.
Science doesn't do that, because scientists are dealing with reality, not faith. Why aren't you?
We don't yet know and may never know how all came to be. It does not follow that some giant fairy said "poof" and commanded it all into existence.
"Sorry! The word "poof" doesn't occur in the KJV."................Facts must be slippery things in scientism.
Must be. You would know.
@lol?? –
By using the term "scientism" you excuse yourself to the kid's table. Seriously.
Why does the length of history have any bearing on the argument?
And what does science prove or fail to disprove with regards to the bible?
The little turd just posted under "Geesh."
Please replace "excuse" with "banish". Obviously this is not my day.
Cedar, you may have guessed but I think he's tipping his hand at YEC beliefs.
californiafats-
First off, sorry about your weight problem but I'm sure that inside you is a person who wants enjoy the benefits of healthy living. Let's look at your problems with the Bible. Does it ever explain anything? It really only seems to make claims. Thin stuff without the gravy and dressing of solid reasoning, or the little new potatoes and caramelized onions of premises that are evident. It has none of the rich whipped cream, strawberries and dark chocolate shavings of formal logic or the drizzling of hot fudge syrup that a basis in science and mathematics might provide. You deserve so much more than it has to offer.
If you dont believe in God then just treat this like a frictional story or just don't watch it altogether. There is no need to be calling people who have faith in God "stupid" "dump"...etc. If you want people to respect your point of view then you must respect other beliefs as well even if you do not share the same view. If you don't believe in the Bible then the debate really stop there. There is no one that can prove the existent of God, you just have to believe or not believe. This is a question for each individual person so please stop all this personal attack.
Do you believe in the Koran and Allah?
You religious don't respect the athiests and agnostic, why should we respect you religious?
Unfortunately, part of the fees I pay for cable TV go to fund this, and tons of other, religious crap. I shouldn't have to pay fo have religion piped into my home. Time to call my provider and ask them to remove all religion channels from their standard/basic packages.
Unfortunately, parts of my TV fee goes to pay for all kinds of sports and rap music crapolla, rather than to finance real art like the Bible
So complain to your provider to get them removed. It would be much better if we could select and pay for only the channels we want. But don't be surprised when you have to pay a lot more for your speciality channel because it is no longer subsidized by mainstream secular channels.
i Believe you actually made the point that Most Americans ascribe to but all one sees on any article mentioning any religion and specifically Christianity and the insulting rabid athiests. Why cant they all be like Penn Gellette and defend ones right to believe and one s right ot disbelieve
Wow...so many negative comments left here, perfectly illustrating the sad state of affairs our society has FALLEN down to..sorry about that Burnetts. I read the article and now feel reassured to watch your new series. I am excited to share it with my family and friends as well. I think you two are very courageous to take this project on, and mostly to portray it as scripture has. Its not just stories, it is one hundred percent truth. If you use the word story too much people may think you mean fiction. The people on this comment board that leave disparaging remarks live without a hope that Christians and believers have after asking God to come into their life and change their heart. Cynicism and hate are not of God and we can only hope that as their days pass and their life unfolds, someone , some where will show them the light that is Jesus. I am perfectly fine with being persecuted for my faith, anything worth everything is worth fighting for. Bring it on!
Ah yes, the classic "sad state of affairs our society has come to" approach.
Do you really think people in earlier times with life expectancy in the 30's, a third of all childbirths ending in death of the infant or mother, no civil or legal rights for poor people, legal slavery, blood sacrifice, etc. etc. etc. – do you REALLY think that was a better state of affairs?
Made them do it HA HA
Scripture also supports selling your daughters into slavery and how to get a good price for them, as well as telling you not to eat shellfish and judge not lest ye be judged. Yet religious people don't live or listen to any of it.
Sorry to harp on this, but it just kills me to hear people in their warm, heated homes with food on the table, who have been vaccinated against numerous horrific diseases, who hold unimaginably complex technology in their hands, in a society that at least strives for equal rights and equal protection for everyone regardless of class, ethnic group, or gender... to hear those people talk about how far we have FALLEN since biblical times.
The pampered ignorance boggles the mind.
Yeah we have fallen so far.........lets go back to a time when we had 'greater faith' .....like Jim Crow......or further back to slavery.......oh how we have fallen.
And please you are not persecuted, not even close
"There is also a book tie-in, games and apps attached to the project."
Really? There's a book tie in?
But, of course there is. Rich people with an agenda always find a way to recoup thier initial investments and them some. After all, they're BFFs with Joel & Victoria Osteen – grifters extrordinaire – ca ching!
Reality TV? Will we see the priests behind the bent over choirboys? The close ups of the burnings at the stake of unfortunate village women who said no to someone connected with authority?
Well, it's about as historically accurate and reality-based as the typical "aliens and conspiracy theories" programming the History Channel has generally stooped to....
Waiting for a 30 something Jewish guy to float down to settle the winning score is the equivalent of intellectually drooling. Gods that pick winners and losers based on weather patterns and geography are not righteous, holy, nor worthy of any attention. What a waste. I'm sure it will play well inside tomorrow's gated communities feeding empty stomachs.
I always new there was something I didn't like about Burnett – now we know he's just another mentally ill delusional believer, perhaps richer than most.
used the wrong color of people for this project,not the mosonic truth,only modern false promotional Prostration
From the article: "As Europeans, now naturalized U.S. citizens, they are stunned the Bible is not taught in public schools." Perhaps a bit more research into American History would have helped. Personal religious beliefs are not pubically taught in public schools in America. That's called a theocracy. America is a Demorcratic Republic where people CHOOSE to become an American and have the right to practice the religion of their choice. Or not. Diverse personal faiths are not public matters to be taught in schools.
my invisible pink unicorn is also stunned and she is praying that they get a clue
There are universal standards of civility that should be taught and practiced in all our associations.
Just because some or most of those standards have been adopted or taught as part of a religion does not invalidate enduring principles.
So keep the secular enduring principles and scrap the religious crap.
So when are you evolutionists gonna bring MagicPanties up to speed on unicorns??
Is it really that far fetched to believe that extraterritorial influences would give us civil standards that encourage cooperation and prosperity?
Whether one is culturally rooted in spiritual faith or scientific interpretation of the physical world; should the standards of civil association be universal?
The Human Brain. A marvelous thing.
youtube.Com/watch?v=4-8NRSfk_a8
And what makes life worth living; it's up to you.
"extraterritorial"??
Religion – the ultimate "good ole boy" network of nepotism.
Which is why you should try using your brain, instead of just repeating what other dummies tell you.
well, they ought to rename the History Channel to the Pseudohistory Channel
problem solved
Sounds like a gay pwogwessive solution.
"are122
LOL...I see you don't read too many books on physics. The last one I read "Knowing the Mind of God" along with others concluded there had to be a creator."
Nope, not what the majority of main stream physic creators have concluded. One of the points is what created the universe, the big bang. Since no one knows for sure some people say maybe that was a god. Other theories include the interaction of dimensions. But here is the deal, if a god (which no religions totally can even agree on who/what that is in any detail) that what created god, and if he always existed, then why does he not clearly show himself.
One could just as well say that the universe was created by a magic fairies and have just as much chance as being correct as saying god did it.
Your not reading physics books, your reading pro-religion books that are attempting (badly by modern science standards) to find partial pieces of available information to bolster their point, and dismiss information that indicates where they are wrong.
Physics and chemistry just work. No creator required.
Religion says god gave us our thinking brains. Then the same religion says for goodess sake don't use your god given brains.
Relativity cancelled the big bang over a century ago, but thanks for playing the physics fool game.
John, you really are pathetic.
Such gooooooooooooooood people. Not doing it for money . . . . . ..
LMAO – Look at all of the businesses cashing in on Jesus. From reality shows to dating sites. Organized religion has become it's own anti-christ.
My invisible pink unicorn would also like a special on the history channel, but sadly they pointed her to syfy.
The stories to me are ridiculous nonsense completely fabricated fairytales lacking historical authenticity yet I still find them interesting to watch like this program. I watch in order to get some kind of inspiritaion or meaning from shows like this but the only thing i get from it is pure entertainment.
I can't wait to see how they will act out Revelations!
The article mentioned apps for the series
Well the apes have them !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsSIKj5ULp4
Peace
Yeah, the ape said he didn't get it either and wasn't a sinner, only doin' what comes naturally.
My dog plays too.
Your dog is smarter than you are, Austin.
Ours does not play dead either Austin wolf/lab 120 pounds Black, climbs trees too.
Peace