Sinner, shepherd and warrior, David's name appears more than 1,000 times in the Bible. Best known for his legendary battle with Goliath, scholars believe that the real-life king had numerous wives ...

He started writing the script for "House of David" as a teenager after visiting King David's tomb in Jerusalem. "It just felt like this huge story to take on and to try to do justice," Erwin said.

King Ahab, husband of the notorious Jezebel, lived later in the ninth century B.C., dying in 897 B.C. David is supposed to have reigned from the year 1000 to 961.

Yet this David, played by curly-locked Michael Iskander, is a straight-up, dead-eyed stone slinger. "The story of David is the origin story of origin stories, a 3,000-year-old hero's journey ...