Drawn from the Holy Quran and supporting traditions.
The Holy Quran says they neither killed him nor crucified him — it was only made to appear so to them. The traditions hand down the rest: on the night of his betrayal, the likeness of the Messiah is cast onto Judas Iscariot, and the betrayer is crucified in his place — while the disciples carry a truth the world will never believe.
Unproduced screenplays • Not a released film • Each people as they were
The center the other twelve films circle. One event, told from every side of the hill — and from inside the garden where it was decided.
Why this slate is different
Most slates are sequels. This one is a constellation. Each screenplay stands alone — and together they assemble one weekend from the palace, the council chamber, the road, the next cross, and the tomb.
The Likeness contains the whole argument by itself: the child, the prophet, the substitution, the truth.
Claudia through a lattice. Simon from under the beam. The Thief from the next cross. The Dissent from the chamber.
From Barnabas's scrolls to a codex in Córdoba to a scholar in Istanbul — what it costs to carry the story.
Surah An-Nisa 4:157
“They did not kill him,
nor did they crucify him.”
The line the entire slate dramatizes — as the testimony of its sources.
From the film
Start with the flagship
The Likeness leads. Then: The Baptist → Judas → Maryam as the hinge → the Weekend films → the After films → The Codex and The Translator as the long coda.
01 • The Flagship • 101 pages • 141 scenes
Written by Yannick Rolle. Drawn from the Holy Quran and supporting traditions.
Synopsis
A mythic epic woven from the Quran, the Gospel of Barnabas, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. From the Holy Quran: the virgin birth beneath the palm, the infant who speaks from the cradle, the miracles worked by Allah's leave, the Table sent down from heaven, and the promise — they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him. From the Gospel of Barnabas: the confession at the Jordan, the foretelling of the messenger to come, and the night when four angels bore Jesus up while Judas was remade in his likeness. From the Infancy Gospel of Thomas: the childhood wonders of Nazareth — the clay sparrows, the withered boy, the teacher confounded. Framed by a present-day scholar translating an early Quranic codex, the film tells the whole arc: the child, the prophet, the likeness, and the truth.
“The Holy Quran says they neither killed him nor crucified him — it was only made to appear so to them. The traditions hand down the rest: on the night of his betrayal, the likeness of the Messiah is cast onto Judas Iscariot, and the betrayer is crucified in his place.”
Screenplay facts
Tap an act to follow the arc. The structure mirrors the synopsis: childhood wonders, public ministry, the substitution in the garden, and the truth the disciples must carry.
Project artwork. Click any frame to enlarge.
02 • The Complete Slate • Flagship-first release order
Every title below is a completed screenplay by Yannick Rolle, listed in the intended release order. Search, filter by movement, and tap a card to open that film's own page.
Plus the 42-chapter novelization, The Likeness.
03 • Testimony, not assertion
The film dramatizes the substitution as the testimony of its sources. It never asserts it as established history. That distinction is the film's method — and its respect for every audience who walks in with a different telling. Quran quotations are from the Sahih International translation.
The theme line • Quran 4:157
“They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him.”
Surah An-Nisa 4:157–158 is the anchor text: the likeness was cast, Isa was raised up — it was made to appear so to them. The slate stays inside that testimony.
The Witnesses • Five references
Five testimonies the slate is built on — read here as the sources give them, in their own words.
Hebrews 5:7 • KJV
“who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.”
The epistle’s own testimony that the garden prayer was heard — the New Testament witness that the cup passed.
Mark 12:29–32
“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord...”
And the scribe answered: “…for there is one God; and there is none other but he.” — Mark 12:32
The first commandment in his own words — one God, confessed by Isa and affirmed by the scribe.
Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:59
“Indeed, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam. He created Him from dust; then He said to him, 'Be,' and he was.”
The Quran applies the word mathal — likeness — to Jesus in 3:59, comparing his creation to Adam’s. The film’s title plays on that word and on the likeness cast in 4:157.
Surah Al-Ma’ida 5:72
The Messiah says:
“O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.”
The argument in the Messiah’s own mouth.
Surah Al-Ma’ida 5:17
“…who could prevent Allah at all if He had intended to destroy Christ, the son of Mary, or his mother or everyone on the earth? … He creates what He wills.”
Nothing about that night constrained God.
Read them yourselfEvery element in the tradition cards below links to its source — read the passages for yourself. Links open in a new tab.
Especially Surah 4:157–158 and Surah Maryam. The virgin birth beneath the palm in the wadi, the infant speaking from the cradle, the miracles by Allah's leave, the Table sent down from heaven — and the promise at the center of the crucifixion account.
In Maryam's film, the wadi becomes her measure for everything: alone, no shelter — just the palm, the stream, and the child.
THE COMMENTATORS
Tafsir is the classical commentary tradition on the Quran — verse-by-verse explanation, built over centuries, in which reports about a passage were collected, weighed, and argued over. Al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir are its most cited voices.
The verse states the denial and the appearance. The tafsir — the classical commentary on the Quran — hands down the early reports of whose appearance it was. The reports are not one voice, and this page does not make them one.
The first great collector. Al-Tabari gathers the earliest transmitted reports — from Ibn Abbas, Wahb ibn Munabbih, and their generation: the likeness of Isa cast upon another man, and Isa raised to God. In several of the reports, the one taken is a disciple who offered himself.
Four centuries later, Ibn Kathir surveys the same reports and weighs them — the volunteer account stands prominent in his telling — and holds the line the verse itself draws: what the crowd witnessed was the appearance, not the man.
The Gospel of Barnabas, below, does what the commentators do not: it names Judas. The film follows the strand the traditions hand down — and keeps the disagreement visible rather than hiding it.
The baptism, the foretelling of the messenger to come, and the night itself: four angels bore Jesus up while Judas was remade in his likeness — the most detailed substitution account in the tradition, and the spine of Act Three.
The Gospel of Barnabas survives in Italian and Spanish manuscripts — the Italian from the late 1500s; its date and origin are debated. The slate uses it as narrative testimony, not historical evidence.
Barnabas, the young witness entrusted with the true account, carries his own film in the slate.
The childhood wonders of Nazareth that form Act One: the clay sparrows brought to life, the withered boy, the teacher confounded. A childhood unlike any other ever filmed — strange, unsettling, and tender at once.
These wonders are why the adult Isa is never simply “a good teacher” in this telling.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as supporting traditions — the shared world: the Baptist at the Jordan, the ministry, the Last Supper, the garden, the road to Golgotha, the witnesses at the cross and the tomb.
The slate does not erase the familiar story. It tells the most familiar story in the catalog from the one perspective it has never been filmed from.
Barnabas knows no baptizer: in his gospel, John's words from the Jordan are spoken by Jesus himself (Barnabas 42).
04 • The Full Verse Bank
The references that carry the work's argument — the verses a reader, a rep, or a hostile questioner will test the films against. Part One is the set the slate was built on; Part Two adds the same lanes, widened. Bible quotations are KJV; Quran references are cited by surah and ayah. Quran quotations are from the Sahih International translation. Read here, as everywhere on this site, as the testimony of the sources — never asserted history.
Part One
Eight references, supplied by the writer: six from the Gospels and the epistles' world, two from Surah Al-Ma'ida. Together they state the whole case — he points away from himself, he prays, and the Quran answers.
1 • Matthew 19:16–19
“Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”
The deflection. The teaching scenes' spine — in the films' register, Isa always points past himself; this is the Gospel scene where he does it in so many words.
2 • Matthew 26:36–47
“O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
The garden prayer. The hinge of the whole slate, prayed three times while the disciples sleep. The Quran's account is, in effect, the answer to this prayer: the cup passes — to the one who brought the multitude.
3 • John 17:3–4
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
The definition. The films' doctrinal center stated inside the Gospel itself — one true God; Jesus the one sent. Spoken by Jesus, in prayer, the night before the cross.
4 • Mark 12:29–32
“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord...”
And the scribe answered: “…for there is one God; and there is none other but he.” — Mark 12:32
The first commandment. Islam's core confession, spoken by Isa in the Gospel record and affirmed by the scribe — the bridge verse for Christian audiences.
5 • John 16:12–13
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.”
The one who comes after. The foretelling lane — carried further in Lane C below.
6 • John 15:26–27
“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness.”
The Comforter. Pairs with John 16 — the testimony to come is about him, delivered by another.
7 • Surah Al-Ma'ida 5:72
“O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.”
The Messiah's own sermon. The Quran's centerpiece for the slate's argument — Isa's self-description in his own mouth. Whoever associates partners with Allah, Paradise is forbidden him.
8 • Surah Al-Ma'ida 5:17
“…who could prevent Allah at all if He had intended to destroy Christ, the son of Mary, or his mother or everyone on the earth? … He creates what He wills.”
The sovereignty answer. The reply-in-advance to the crucifixion's necessity — dominion belongs to Allah, and nothing about that night constrained God.
Part Two
Twenty-one further references, gathered in five lanes. Two of them — Hebrews 5:7 and Surah 3:59 — also stand on The Sources page; here is the full bank they belong to.
Extends Matthew 19 and Mark 12 — the pattern of the ministry: every honor redirected upward.
John 14:28
“My Father is greater than I.”
Six words; the plainest subordination statement in the Gospels.
Mark 13:32
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”
A limit on the Son's knowledge, stated by the Son.
John 5:30
“I can of mine own self do nothing... I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”
His own account of his own agency: nothing of himself; everything by the One who sent him.
John 20:17
“I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”
My God — after the resurrection, in his own words. Directly relevant to the films' upper-room scenes.
Matthew 4:10
“Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
At the temptation — the refusal that defines the ministry before it begins.
Extends Matthew 26 — Gethsemane did not go unanswered. The witnesses gather around the garden.
Hebrews 5:7
“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.”
The single strongest corroboration from the Christian scriptures for the slate's claim: the prayer of Gethsemane was answered.
Luke 22:43
“And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.”
Heaven is already moving in the garden before the arrest; the films stage the angels at the arrest — Luke puts one there during the prayer.
Psalm 91:14–15
“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.”
The deliverance promise — and the psalm Satan quotes at the temptation. The tempter cites the promise; the garden collects it.
Psalm 41:9
“Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”
The betrayer foretold — quoted at the supper in John 13:18. Anchors JUDAS.
Extends John 15–16 — the foretelling, witnessed from both books.
John 16:7
“If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.”
Already in the work — the main film's upper room re-voices it: “after me, he will come,” keeping the sending with Allah.
Surah As-Saff 61:6
“…bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad.”
Already in the work — Barnabas's foretelling and the Baptist's arc hang on it.
Surah Al-A'raf 7:157
The coming messenger is the one “whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel.”
The verse that binds the foretelling to BOTH books — the slate's two-source structure stated inside the Quran itself.
Surah An-Najm 53:3–4
Of the Messenger: “Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination… It is not but a revelation revealed.”
The Quran's mirror of John 16:13's “he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.” Set side by side, the two descriptions are one description.
Extends 5:72 and 5:17 — what the Book itself says about Isa, in its own register.
Surah An-Nisa 4:157–158
“They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him... rather, Allah raised him to Himself.”
The foundation verse — already the slate's cornerstone and this site's center line.
Surah An-Nisa 4:171
The Messiah “…was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him… And do not say, 'Three'; desist — it is better for you.”
Already in the work — Isa's self-naming line.
Surah Al-Ma'ida 5:75
“The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger; [other] messengers have passed on before him. And his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food.”
The humanity marker — and MARYAM's verse: the mother inside the argument, not above it.
Surah Al-Ma'ida 5:116–117
“I said not to them except what You commanded me — to worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.”
On the Last Day, Allah asks Jesus directly whether he told men to take him and his mother as gods. The eschatological capstone of 5:72 — the argument of the whole slate, staged by the Quran itself as a future courtroom scene.
Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:59
“Indeed, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam. He created Him from dust; then He said to him, 'Be,' and he was.”
The Quran applies the word mathal — likeness — to Jesus in 3:59, comparing his creation to Adam's. The film's title plays on that word and on the likeness cast in 4:157.
Surah Maryam 19:30–33
The cradle speech: “Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakah as long as I remain alive. And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant. And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive.”
Already dramatized in Act One of the flagship and in MARYAM, whose closing card is 19:33.
Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:49 • Al-Ma'ida 5:110
Every miracle is worked “by Allah's leave” — bi'idhni.
Already the synopsis's wording: the wonders are his to perform, and never his to own.
The substitute's words — read to the end of the psalm he quotes.
Psalm 22:1, 24
“He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.”
The forsaken cry opens Psalm 22 — and the psalm ends in vindication. In the films the cry belongs to Judas, the substitute; the psalm he quotes runs from abandonment to being heard — the same arc as Hebrews 5:7, from inside the Psalter.
The Map
Where each witness does its work across the thirteen films.
Matthew 19 • Mark 12 • John 5:30 • Matthew 4:10 — the prophet who will not be worshipped, teaching in the open.
“Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”
“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord...”
And the scribe answered: “…for there is one God; and there is none other but he.” — Mark 12:32
“I can of mine own self do nothing... I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”
“Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
Matthew 26 • Hebrews 5:7 • Luke 22:43 • Psalm 91 • Psalm 41:9 — the prayer, the angel, the promise collected, the betrayer foretold.
“O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.”
“And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.”
“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.”
“Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”
John 17 • John 14:28 • John 20:17 • John 15–16, with Quran 61:6 and 7:157 — the definition, the limits, and the one to come.
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
“My Father is greater than I.”
“I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”
“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness.”
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.”
“If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.”
“…bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad.”
The coming messenger is the one “whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel.”
5:75 • 19:30–33 • 3:59 — the mother inside the argument; the cradle speech; the likeness of Adam.
“The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger; [other] messengers have passed on before him. And his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food.”
“Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakah as long as I remain alive. And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant. And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive.”
“Indeed, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam. He created Him from dust; then He said to him, 'Be,' and he was.”
Psalm 41:9 • Mark 13:32 — the familiar friend foretold, and the limit even the betrayer heard.
“Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”
“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”
5:116–117 — the argument still being tried in a future court; the long afterlife of the question.
“I said not to them except what You commanded me — to worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.”
3:59 — The Quran applies the word mathal — likeness — to Jesus in 3:59, comparing his creation to Adam's. The film's title plays on that word and on the likeness cast in 4:157.
“Indeed, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam. He created Him from dust; then He said to him, 'Be,' and he was.”
Every lane runs back to one verse.
“They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him... rather, Allah raised him to Himself.”
05 • The Novelization
CRUCIFIXION: THE LIKENESS — A Novel, by Yannick Rolle. The flagship expanded into prose: 42 chapters in four parts mirroring the film's four acts. A completed manuscript — not published, and not for sale.
The novel
Where the screenplay holds the flagship to 101 pages, the novel opens it up: the present-day frame in full — Layla Haddad, the disputed eighth-century codex, and her grandfather's notebook — and the ancient story carried inside it, from the vow that begins Maryam's life to the translator still at her desk at the end.
The four parts mirror the film's four acts exactly: The Child, The Prophet, The Likeness, The Truth. The novel is in step with the finished screenplay — including the Lazarus chapter, Chapter 25, “The Four Days,” which stands in Part Two where the film places it.
Chapter One is reproduced in full below, so the book can be read, not just described.
Manuscript facts
The same architecture as the film — childhood, ministry, substitution, truth — with the frame story woven through it.
Chapters 1–12
The frame opens: a scholar, a disputed codex, a grandfather's notebook. Then the vow, the visitation, the birth in the remote place — and the childhood wonders of Nazareth: the clay birds, the teacher, the boy of twelve in the Temple.
Chapters 13–26
The river and the forty days. The ministry in full — the signs, the multitude, the Table descending — and Chapter 25, “The Four Days,” the Lazarus chapter, in step with the film. An interlude returns to the translator.
Chapters 27–34
The garden. The unmaking. The sword, the trial, the dream, the road — and Golgotha, where the likeness does its work and the weight of it lands.
Chapters 35–42
The barred door and the third night. The empty tomb, the road to Emmaus, the upper room, the Mount of Olives — and the witness who carries it forward. The translator is still translating.
The complete table of contents, as it stands in the manuscript.
Read the book
Reproduced complete from the manuscript — the opening of Part One, The Child.
The archivist set the box on the long table the way men set down things they are afraid of — carefully, and a little too far from themselves.
“The provenance is disputed,” he said. “Carbon dated to the eighth century, give or take fifty years. Found, allegedly, in a Yemeni mosque library. The board disagrees about both. The catalog lists three different find-sites. The dating report has a dissenting appendix.”
Layla Haddad did not touch the box. “And the last scholar?”
“Dr. Haddad — your grandfather — requested it twice. Was refused twice.” The archivist glanced at the rain beating the tall windows. “The scholar after him asked to be reassigned after eleven days. He left no notes. Only —”
“Only what?”
“He said some things should stay untranslated.”
The archivist withdrew. The reading room settled into its night silence: rain on glass, the hum of the climate system, the breathing of old paper.
Layla looked at the box for a long moment. Then she pulled on the white cotton gloves, lifted the lid, and there it was — a codex, vellum pages dark with age, the ancient script flowing across them in black and gold like a river that had never stopped running.
Beside the box lay a worn notebook. On its first page, in a shaky, beloved hand: For Layla — when you are ready.
Her throat closed. She touched the inscription with one fingertip, the way you touch a scar.
“All right, Jiddi,” she whispered. “Let's see what you found.”
She opened the codex. The parchment whispered. She pressed record on the small device beside her, and the red light bloomed.
A qari's voice, low and unhurried, filled her earphones — reciting the old words. She translated under her breath, testing whether the English could hold the weight.
“And mention in the Book, Maryam, when she withdrew from her family to a place eastward…”
She stopped. Played the Arabic again. Let it wash over her like water.
Outside, the rain went on. The world knew nothing.
Layla closed her eyes. Listened. And the centuries folded open.
The full manuscript is a completed, unpublished work. Industry readers may request it through The Writer page.
06 • Watch
The flagship in motion: the finished extended trailer, and the animatic previz that walks the whole screenplay in 28 beats, in full motion. Press play — nothing on this page starts on its own.
Every frame generated in the film's own painted keyframe language — no stock footage. Music: “Stormfront” by Kevin MacLeod (CC-BY).
The whole film in 28 beats, in full motion — a working previz of the screenplay with narration, drawn with each people as they were — Judeans, Romans, and every nation in their own image. Music: “Atlantean Twilight” by Kevin MacLeod (CC-BY).
07 • The Writer
Writer of all thirteen screenplays — and of the 42-chapter novelization, The Likeness.
The slate is represented by the screenplays themselves. No agent, manager, or studio credits exist for this project, and none are implied on this site. Industry inquiries go directly to the writer.
About
Yannick Rolle wrote the flagship, CRUCIFIXION: THE LIKENESS (101 pages, 141 scenes), and all twelve companion screenplays — from The Baptist at the Jordan to The Translator, set eighteen months after the codex at the heart of the flagship's present-day frame.
The films are cast as the sources describe them — each people as they were, in their own image. The project is positioned flagship-first for submission: the flagship contains the whole argument on its own, with the slate as its bench — twelve films circling a single event the audience assembles piece by piece.
Alongside the screenplays, Rolle completed The Likeness as a 42-chapter novelization, expanding the world of the flagship beyond the screen.
Industry inquiries
Managers, producers, and entertainment attorneys: screenplays are available on request. No attachments are sent cold — write first, and the requested title will follow.
yannick.rolle@icloud.com • (301) 651-6766
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