A film titled Mary, the Mother of the Christ is being filmed right now for release in 2010.  Co-written by Catholic film scholar Barbara Nicolosi and The Passion of the Christ screenwriter Benedict Fitzgerald, the movie stars Camilla Belle (pictured right) as Mary, Jonathan Rhys Myers as both Gabriel and Lucifer, and Al Pacino as Herod (with an appearance by Peter O'Toole as Symeon!), directed by James Foley.

Co-writer Nicolosi says, "Ben and I were determined to make a deeper film" than The Nativity Story. She also remarked, "Christians are always jumping the gun and trying to capitalize on the God thing, but their plans will never amount to anything unless they create beautiful works of art." 

I'll look forward to seeing if they succeed.

HT: Salvo magazine (my favorite magazine, incidentally), summer 2009 issue.