Winter Blast Puts Brakes on "The Chosen"

With much of Texas in the deep freeze, production of this series about the life of Christ is currently on hold.

Cast and crew dealt with rain last week, but had to call things off when it turned to snow as temperatures dropped this week. Image: "The Chosen"/Instagram.

The weather has gotten so bad that Dallas Jenkins, the creator and director of The Chosen, is calling for prayer. He and his team have been filming season two of the hit streaming series for several weeks in Midlothian, which is south of the city of Dallas, but they have had to pause because of conditions there.

Snow, ice and daily high temperatures below freezing have caused a host of problems, with some of the cast and crew even staying in hotels lacking water and electricity; others team members have been unable to reach the area at all because of canceled flights. And in the TV and movie business, delays in production mean cost overruns: the show loses something on the order of $100,000 per day when filming is scrubbed.

Further delays could also threaten Jenkins' goal of releasing episode one of the second season around Easter, so he is asking supporters of the show to pray for the safety of cast and crew and that they can get back to work to keep things on schedule. In addition to the power of prayer, the weather forecast gives hope for optimism: area temperatures are expected to rise above freezing on Friday and then to climb into the 60s by the middle of next week. There is also no precipitation anticipated through the end of the month.