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Moses will part the Red Sea all over again this week when Promenade Pictures releases an all-new computer-animated version of The Ten Commandments to theaters across the country (see the trailer here). And if the film's producers have their way, Moses will be blazing a trail not only for the Israelites, but for twelve movies in their planned Bible Epic Series, all animated films that will be released, on average, at a rate of one per year.

Moses and the Burning Bush

The series has the backing of at least one serious Hollywood veteran. Frank Yablans, the chairman and CEO of Promenade Pictures, was president of Paramount when it produced The Godfather, and after that, he was CEO of MGM/UA. Yablans and Cindy Bond, the president and COO of Promenade, spoke with CT Movies by phone.

Frank, on the Promenade website, you wrote about "the impersonal treatment of the independent producer by the giant, multi-national conglomerate. They produce and distribute whatever they believe can turn a profit without regard to social conscience." Is that what motivated you to get this business up and running?

Frank Yablans: Absolutely. And having met Cindy Bond, who was in the family and faith-based business at that time, I just felt the kindred spirit and the other co-founders with us were all of the same mind and same feelings about what we want to produce. I started out with Disney in this business in 1950s.

What were you doing with Disney?

Yablans: I was in distribution in the Midwest. We had just formed Buena Vista, and we were so true to our calling. Walt was very, very insistent that we never stray outside of the family area that we wanted to satisfy, and consistently it was the best performing films that you could possibly get.

Then they lost their bearings a little bit.

Yablans: They lost their bearings because they got big again. Big always seems the path to downfall. It may be the path to profits, but it's certainly the path to a moral decline.

Promenade gives you some opportunities that you never had before, I presume.

Yablans: Promenade is a labor of love. It's a passion. Whereas the other things were passionate but they weren't a labor of love.

Cindy, how do you come into this picture?

Cindy Bond: Frank and I met for lunch about a little over five years ago when I was with my own company, Providence Entertainment. Frank and I met because we were searching for a CEO for that company, and Frank and I hit it off immediately.

Now, five years later, we've never even had an argument. We get along great. We have a lot of laughs. We not only have a family company in terms of the type of product we make, but we actually live what we make. I mean, we are a family here in our company, with the dogs and kids and everybody running in and out of this place.

Yablans: It's an extraordinary thing when people come to see us; we always have people coming in and out. They are absolutely in awe of the family atmosphere that we have in our offices. Everybody here is just tuned into their personal lives together and their business lives together and their families. It's just an amazing operation.

Who initiated that lunch five years ago?

Bond: One of our partners, Ron Booth.

Yablans: The company that Cindy was with at that time should have been very successful, but unfortunately they seemed to have hired the wrong people in key positions. I went in as a consultant to analyze whether or not there was a viable business there. And although I thought there was a viable business, we couldn't seem to raise any more money.

Frank Yablans

So that company went out of business, and because we all got along so well—Cindy Bond and Ron Booth and Charlie Gay and I, these are the four founding partners—we said, "Let's just start our own company." And for 4½ years, we've just stayed under the radar developing our screenplays, developing our material. I had an absolute firm rule: No publicity, because we have to let our product speak for itself. And before we got ready to roll out the Ten Commandments, nobody even knew Promenade existed except the creative community.

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