Who was the Virgin Mary before she became the mother of Christ, revered in the Catholic Church? What was her life like as a girl and young woman? How well do we know her and, after the passage of millennia, is it possible to know her now?
“There’s not a lot in the Scriptures on Mary,” said screenwriter and Whitman native Timothy Michael Hayes said in an interview Friday, Nov. 26 about the film, “Mary,” making its debut on Netflix tomorrow – Friday, Dec. 6. “When I was asked to do it – my producer approached me and asked me, ‘Would you be interested in writing an original telling of Mary’s story,?’ I just saw all the obstacles in that. [But] I said, ‘That’s a challenge. That’s something different, I haven’t heard of that [being done before],’” he recalled. “That idea of that challenge, was like, ‘Yeah, let me take it on. Let me try it. Let me do it.”
One challenge was that they wanted to film to appeal to all denominations and all dogmas. It is also a different kind of genre, which Hayes calls a Biblical thriller, one that’s theologically solid, if that’s what one is looking for – and the film is an attempt to appeal across borders. IMDb, the industry website about cross references the film and TV ratings and reviews, lists “Mary” as a political thriller, an action film and just plain thriller. A bipartisan approach, if you will.
The call to write this script came in 2018, with the changes that often happen in pre-production.
“It’s a journey, and you go on to other things,” he said. The film world stutter-start was not unusual and when it was on again, he had rewrites and revisions to do with changing visions of new directors. Hayes pointed to his next project on the life of Milton Hershey that is going though that because a new director just came on board.
Lead Producer Mary Aloe of Aloe Entertainment, with whom Hayes has worked before, was the first person to ask him to write the screenplay.
“Mary,” like most films these days, it seems, has generated a bit of controversy, too, mainly centering on the casting of mostly unknown Israeli and Arab actors from the Middle East, especially Israeli actress Noa Cohen, who had been wrongfully identified as a Palestinian. Only Sir Anthony Hopkins, who portrays King Herod, is a “big name” Hollywood actor.
“If we’re honest about that, to a certain point, controversy is a good thing,” Hayes said. “It generates interest. Netflix’s interest in acquiring it also brought the idea that a lot of people will watch this.”
The production schedule was a rushed one, as filming in Ouarzazate, Morocco only wrapped up in March. “But we knew all along that the goal was holiday 2024.”
If it missed that deadline, it wouldn’t debut until February 2025, with no guarantee it would get the same audience numbers.
The original “Miracle on 34th Street,” hit theaters on June 4, 1947, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” came close, opening on Jan. 7, 1947, and “The Bishop’s Wife,” didn’t hit theaters until Feb. 14, 1948.
“Spoiler alert,” he said. “At the end, the baby Jesus is born, so it’s kind of a Christmas thing. [The Dec. 6 Netflix debut] kind of gives it a three-week run up to Christmas.”
Hayes said he and the producers had always wanted a theatrical release for “Mary.”
“It would have been riskier,” he said. “With Netflix, you have a lot locked in, and the biggest global audience in the world. The key there is global. … Mary’s story appeals across the globe.”
At core, Hayes and his producers set out to explore the notion of doubt in the film, an intention at the root of some of the online “controversy.”
“Certain factions of religion, or religious mindsets, say Mary never doubted,” he said. “That’s just not interesting, nor is it very human. I feel that the more human someone is, the stronger they are in the end – to acknowledge the humanity, what it means to be alive, and come out on the other side, only makes them stronger.”
Confirmed as a Roman Catholic, Hayes said he grew up with a foundational understanding of the “religious” aspects of Mary’s story, including the non-biblical doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.
“But because so little of Mary’s early life is found in the canonical Scriptures — beyond key mentions of her in Matthew and Luke — more was needed to tell her fuller human story,” he said, stressing that he has many conversations with faith leaders of all stripes, discussing nuances of belief, interpretation and language.
Hayes, who is the father of four daughters among his five children, said his script emphasizes that Mary was a human being, after all.
“The idea that she’s a pregnant teenager, unwed and didn’t understand why … and she wasn’t scared? That just doesn’t speak to any kind of reality that you or I would know,” he said. “Of course you’re going to be terrified. Of Course you’re going to have doubts to work through. It’s a larger metaphor for what we all go through. Doubt is inherent … every day we wake up doubting ourselves.”
He maintains it does not step away from the Devine – it reinforces it.
Hayes said he has also instilled some subtle humor in the film. The early buzz about the film has been great, despite the controversies.
“My job is to write something that other artists will read, actors, directors – keep going, costume designers, set builders, and they will see an opening for their own creativity,” he said. “There’s a way to do it that that script is an open door to other artists. To see all of us come together from across the globe …”
He hints there just might be a sequel if the film is a big enough hit and there is a theme that they see as a good one to explore.
Meet the
screenwriter
So, one might ask, who is Timothy Michael Hayes?
Valedictorian at W-H in 1988, Hayes then went on to New York University’s film school, where he graduated in 1992. He’s raised his five children in Scituate.
“I could have probably gone anywhere, but I didn’t apply anywhere else,” he said of NYU. “I applied early admission. I was always interested in everything. I love to write. I love music and grew to love photography – and where can you do all three of those things in one place?”
An early influence was the Cohen brothers, [“Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona”] whose editor was the elder brother of Hayes’ roommate and filmmaking partner. That connection helped bring the Cohen Brothers to his senior thesis bay to view their senior film and offer comments.
His “big, happy detour” was meeting someone from the Massachusetts South Shore and returning to get married. His wife was a dancer, and the couple opened a dance studio in Scituate. He also goes into Scituate High each year to help teach a Literature to Film class.
“I kind of stopped doing film for a little bit,” he says as he kept the books and did customer service for the studio. “Life has these interesting journeys.”
His writing process, now that he’s back in film, is different for each film, Hayes said, but most are historically based.
“I’m a lover of history,” he said. “At W-H, that was my passion.”
He is typically hired to either adapt a book or historical incidents that have no specific book for reference, and you do your own reference work. Films like “Mary.”
When adapting a book, he thoroughly notates it with three pens – black, red and blue. The black ink tracks reflections of the original idea; blue notes if there is a running theme at work and red is for the “big highlight” moments.
“I notate everything I read,” he said. That includes performance programs.
Everyone’s life is a story, Hayes believes.
“To me, stories are the essence of what it means to be human,” he said. “We do it every day. … and you’ve got to hook them, which is so prevalent now, in the streaming age on TV.”
He said it has always been true in cinema, especially in the past 20 to 30 years, when scripts outlining the first act of the film has to be done in 22 pages instead of 25, as action has been key.
His main professional goal right now is moving more into controlling his own properties.
“I’ve been a gun-for-hire since I got back into this,” he said. “It’s more than a full-time job. It’s really seven days a week, 24 hours a day, because I love it. I always have pages [to revise].”
His college roommate has helped with that – he wrote a little film called “Elf.”
And, what’s next after “Mary?”
Hayes is in the midst of an adaptation of Norman Rockwell’s autobiography into a five-season series.
“For me, his story is the story of the 20th century,” he said of Rockwell’s work. “When you’re living it, which is why I love what I do, I’m living it. You’re balancing so many things at one time.”
He’s also working on a “fantastical biopic” on the life of chocolate king Milton Hershey for Dandelion Media, and most has work on “Box of Light,” a feature adaptation of Evan I. Schwartz’s biography of Philo T. Farnsworth, the true inventor of television. 

WHITMAN – The tradition of looking after one’s neighbors in need – whether that need be social or financial – while handing that tradition along to the community’s youth has roots as old as time.
Whether those roots are based in religion or culture, they were clearly in practice in the region as Thanksgiving approached, only to ramp up considerably as Christmas and other December holidays such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa draw near.
Kicking off the seasonal service events began on Saturday, Nov. 16 as the Cardinal Spellman Council No. 347 welcomed a record number of town and area senior citizens, who would otherwise be alone at the Thanksgiving holiday with a roast turkey dinner (or several of the birds), with mashed potatoes, dressing and gravy, cranberry sauce, winter squash, peas and pearl onions, dinner roll and a brownie sundae for dessert.
Members of the Whitman-Hanson football team helped the Knights and Whitman police serve the dinner, including cranberry juice cocktail and fruit cup, without spilling a drop.
The dinner is part of the K of C’s mission to do charitable works for the community as an expression of faith.
This was the 51st year that the Spellman Council has hosted the dinner, member Bob Hayes announced to the diners before the benediction was offered by Parochail Vicar, the Rev. Godfrey Musabe, of the Light of Christ Catholic Collaborative that serves St. Bridget in Abingon and Holy Ghost Church in Whitman.
Born in Uganda, he told the seniors he came to the United States to study at Boston College and now serves as chaplain of an Army National Guard unit when he is not serving his vocation.
“It begins with Thanksgiving,” Musabe said. “Everything is Thanksgiving, and as we come together, we thank God for the many blessings he has given us … for allowing us to be here. We thank God for this wonderful and beautiful country that he has given us. We thank God for the gift of one another.”
He also invited those attending the dinner to, in their own way and according to their own faith tradition, to pray for a moment of thanksgiving before the meal was served, asking a blessing on the volunteers who sacrificed their time to prepare and serve the meal, the gathering to enjoy it and the meal itself.
Six days later, the students of Conley Elementary School included their annual gifts to the community’s food pantry and animal shelter as part of their Thanksgiving basket assembly, now made part of their November monthly school morning meeting.
The children had recently been asked to each bring in a canned good or other food item for a Thanksgiving meal to provide a holiday dinner for 25 families in their community, as well as an abject lesson in how one person’s efforts can do so much.
The children were asked to turn to classmates on either side of them and say what they are thankful for this year.
The big moments came when Student Council President Riley Lusk announced how many baskets were being donated to the pantry.
“I want to start off by saying how amazing it is to see all that our school families have donated,” she said. “Just like we come together as a school to help each other, it’s important to help others in our community, too. Because of all of you, 25 families in our community will get to enjoy Thanksgiving dinners.”
She thanked the students and wished them a happy Thanksgiving.
St, Vincent DePaul Food Pantry President Richard Clark thanked the students on behalf of the pantry for their contributions.
“Everybody here has done great work,” he said. “All the help given the food pantry will be very good for all the families in Whitman that we need to help out because they have food insecurity. I appreciate all the things you guys have done. Keep up the good work!”
“I’m so proud of our school for the kindness we show to animals,” Council member Brody Gould said. “Every year, we ask the Conley community to contribute whatever the can for our Pennies for Paws collection.”
He announced this year, the students raised $450 for the animals being housed at the Whitman Animal Shelter.
Animal Control Officer Laura Howe thanked the students.
“You always make me cry,” she said. “But I’m just so proud of you all. You give me hope every year for the future of our world.”
She told the children that kindness is really all that matters in this world, and the way that Conley students always exemplify it every year, always move her to tears.
“Wow! It really does all begin with one can,” said one of the Council members before the Student Council brought in the baskets as the song, “When Fall Comes to New England,” played. “We are so lucky to live in a community where everyone helps each other.”