When the Fire Answered Back: Mena Massoud and Elijah Alexander on the Set of Daniel and the Fiery Furnace

We could really use a movie like this right about now. That was the first thing Paul Salfen told Mena Massoud and Elijah Alexander when they sat down to talk about Daniel and the Fiery Furnace. The biblical epic, written and directed by brothers Matthew and Daniel Kooman and released in theaters September 18 through EKKL Entertainment, follows the young prophet Daniel—played by Massoud, best known as Disney’s live-action Aladdin and also a producer on the film—through his early years in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar, played by Alexander of The Chosen. The story culminates in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to bow to a golden statue and their deliverance from the furnace. Massoud and Alexander describe a set that felt like family, a 12-minute take of Daniel chapter 2 in which the weather itself seemed to answer the Scripture, and the holy reverence required to bring the text to the screen.