Writer Ed Naha is, in his words, "a professional schizophrenic."

Starting out with Roger Corman's company, he wrote everything from comedy to fantasy before pairing up with Stuart Gordon for one of the best killer-toy movies ever made, Dolls, and the original version of Honey I Shrunk The Kids. Speaking with Naha about his latest project, a computer-animated version of The Ten Commandments, out now from Alliance Films, it's clear this writer will never be pigeonholed.

Uptown: What were the challenges in adapting such a well-known story?

Ed Naha: It's interesting, because you were writing it for a family, and at the same time you had to walk this tightrope where you had to be faithful to the Bible and still tell a story that was entertaining. It's really tricky stuff, especially now, since religion has been politicized and everyone has preconceived ideas of what Christianity should be. You don't want to offend anybody, and at the same time, you want to reach everybody. In the 1950s, when they did these Biblical epics, they had a little more wiggle room; you could have love triangles that weren't in the Bible. If you tried to do that today, you'd be called on it.

Uptown: Were you influenced by the DeMille movie at all?

EN: It's weird, because a lot of people who know the story will tell you things that they think were in the Bible, but they're actually only in the DeMille film. For instance, the character Ramses isn't named Ramses, he's just Pharaoh. We were all in agreement that our Moses should not be Charlton Heston, because in the Bible he's a very hesitant prophet. He tries to weasel his way out of the gig when God speaks to him in the burning bush. My first thought was Jimmy Stewart, because he usually played reluctant heroes like in Destry Rides Again.

I give a lot of credit to Christian Slater. As the character Moses grows more comfortable in his role as leader, Christian's voice grows more confident as well. It's a very good acting job. And Elliott Gould plays God. Is that cool or what? I was raised on Elliott Gould movies, M.A.S.H., and stuff like that, and he just nailed it. He played it as God, the Father, he was very paternal. I read one review, who said God wasn't hateful enough. Can you imagine thinking God was too nice?

Upcoming Releases
May 20 - Diary of The Dead; National Treasure 2; Muppet Show: Season Three; Square Pegs: The Complete Series; James Stewart: The Western Collection.

Amanda Stefaniuk is a freelance writer who literally grew up in a video store.