While at the Palm Springs Film Festival, I ran into Ben X director Nic Balthazar and was able to speak to him very briefly before he had to go introduce the film at its showing. I asked about the project of remaking the film for an American audience.

Nothing is signed yet, but it’s something we are currently working on, because you face the same problems here just the same as in Europe – suicide among young people, people living out of fear online more than their live in the real world

I also asked about the religious imagery he used in the film and how intentional it was to make such strong use of religious symbols.

It’s strange. This is a wonderful thing about screenwriting, that it is a more collaborative process than writing a book. When I was making the screenplay, somebody said, “Why don’t you make it in a Catholic environment?” I immediately said, “Yes! Christ was bullied too.” And then this was, of course, such a bridge to the passion story of Christ and a story 2007 years later where also somebody tries to turn the other cheek as it were and not respond to violence with violence. It was something that in the process came up. And you must know that Europe is not as religious as the States are, and for sure Belgium is not so Christian a country. So it was a big risk of incorporating this. I’m not the most religious person myself, but still, it’s the most beautiful story ever told – one of the most powerful stories ever told.