TORONTO, ON-Only months after the feature film The Gospel of John premiered in theatres across North America to widespread acclaim, Visual Bible International Inc.-the production company behind the venture-is in turmoil and struggling with cash flow problems.

Corporate news releases say Visual Bible is "a global, Christian faith-based media company, which has secured certain

exclusive worldwide rights to develop, produce and market the film adaptations, on a word-for-word basis of both the Old and New Testaments."

But as a recent article in The Globe and Mail indicates, although the company had targeted sales of 600,000 videos and DVDs in 2003, only about 40,000 were sold in that year.

The Globe reports that in an April filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "the company said if sales do not meet current targets, and if additional capital is not found, Visual Bible ‘will certainly be in default [on its debt] and may be forced to cease its operations.’"

The company’s board has also been experiencing upheavals, and has seen several of its directors quit in recent months, including former Visual Bible chairman, Steven Small, former Ontario Premier Mike Harris and Peter Richardson, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto’s Department of Religious Studies and once chair of the company’s theological advisory committee.

Shortly after The Gospel of John interior sequences were shot in a Toronto film studio, Richardson described his experience working on the production as "a very happy partnership."

Upon release of the film, movie producer Garth Drabinsky told ChristianWeek that pre-production planning had already begun for the next project, The Gospel of Mark. There has been no word on whether it will proceed.