Leading film-makers are courting controversy with plans for adaptations of provocative books about Jesus Christ that are likely to generate a backlash from traditional Christians. British producer David Heyman is developing a film based on Reza Aslan’s bestselling book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, while Paul Verhoeven, the Dutch director, has been working on an adaptation of his own book, Jesus of Nazareth, for five years. Aslan, a member of the American Academy of Religion, made headlines last year when a Fox News interviewer challenged his credentials, as a Muslim, to write an account of Jesus’s...