Wall Street Journal highlights Birmingham filmmaker Jon Erwin as part of new generation of religious storytellers
Barton Swaim, an editorial page writer at The Wall Street Journal, recently used the pages of the national newspaper to write a profile of Jon Erwin, a filmmaker and creator of the Amazon series 'House of David,' chronicling the Biblical story of David and his journey from a lowly shepherd to the king of Israel.
'House of David,' which Erwin also directed and co-wrote all eight episodes of its first season, has been widely lauded since first premiering earlier this spring, becoming one of the highest viewed Amazon series the week it premiered as well as receiving a 71% overall critical grade on Rotten Tomatoes. The show was recently renewed for a second season.
For years, Erwin and his brother, Andrew, made several films together, many of them filmed in their hometown of Birmingham, such as 'Woodlawn' and 'Mom's Night Out,' as well as a documentary exploring the history of contemporary Christian music called 'The Jesus Music.'
The brothers also run their own production company, Kingdom story Company, which also produces 'House of David.'
In his piece, Swaim celebrates Jon Erwin in the care he took in creating 'House of David,' from speaking with religious scholars and theologians in forming the show to finding the emotional core of the story.
'I have felt for many years that the story of David is ripe for cinematic treatment. But I worried that any attempt by a Hollywood studio to dramatize it would ride roughshod over the Book of Samuel's beautifully constructed narrative and extract from it 21st-century social-political messages that aren't there,' Swaim wrote. 'Mr. Erwin can be trusted not to commit those errors, believing as he does—readers may agree or disagree—that the text is revelatory of God's character.'
Swaim heralded the Erwin brothers as being part of a growing group of faith-based filmmakers in Hollywood who are slowly reaching a wider audience than before.
'I wonder if the success of the Erwin brothers' films, and of other faith-adjacent productions generally, signifies some broader cultural shift: a new openness to unironic virtue, perhaps, or a discontent with stories that studiously ignore the sacred,' he wrote.
The full piece can be read here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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