Visual Bible in interim receivership

Patricia Paddey
ChristianWeek

THE COMPANY that produced The Gospel of John, a critically acclaimed, $20-million, word-for-word film adaptation of John's Gospel, has been placed in interim receivership.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice made the ruling on April 13.

"The intent of the interim receivership is to protect the assets of Visual Bible and sell the assets on a going concern basis," says a release from Visual Bible International Inc (VBI). "It is the intention that VBI will continue to operate throughout the receivership process, during which time the interim receiver intends to actively search for a buyer for the company."

The company's financial woes are due in part to the fact that video and DVD sales of The Gospel of John "failed to live up to expectations," according to a report in the Globe and Mail.

"The Gospel of John was very well done. They spent a lot of money doing it and a lot of money marketing it," Luc Perron, vice president of finance for VBI told ChristianWeek. However, he said, "they built the infrastructure to handle a significantly larger company than what was required. It was too pricey for the marketplace.

"The company had anticipated being able to produce more films more quickly than they were able to do. They lacked financing. In an ideal world, one film finances the next one -- but we didn't quite get there."

Perron said the interim receivership "allows the company to sit back and analyze its options before going forward." Meanwhile, VBI is continuing to promote their products, mainly on the ministry side, and several thousand churches are using The Gospel of John as a teaching tool.

VBI describes itself as "global Christian, faith-based media company," and recently concluded a distribution agreement with Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment Inc. for both The Gospel of John and its upcoming film The Gospel of Mark.

-- with files from The Globe and Mail