'Kings'

NEW YORK — Michael Green, creator and executive producer of "Kings," describes his modern-day retelling of the David and Goliath story as "stealth science fiction."

"I keep saying, yes, it's sci-fi, but please don't tell NBC," he joked.

It's difficult to pin "Kings" in a particular genre. The ambitious project updates the biblical tale of David -- a shepherd who helped defeat the Philistines and eventually became king of Israel -- by setting it in a world vastly different from the ancient Middle East.

The time period is now; the place, a kingdom called Gilboa, a land that looks much like the Northeastern United States. The capital city, Shiloh, is a gleaming metropolis that resembles a scrubbed-clean New York. It is ruled by King Silas Benjamin (Ian McShane), a wily monarch who favors power suits over regal robes. When his son, Jack, is taken hostage by enemy troops, a young soldier named David Shepard risks his life to save him. The impetuous act makes him a media darling and propels him into the sphere of the royal family.

Plenty about Gilboa feels familiar, such as the dysfunctional antics of the Benjamins and the shadowy corporation that exerts a heavy influence on the government. But the series is also punctuated with fantastical touches, such as the orange monarch butterflies that flit through the air, anointing those who are destined to lead.

Chris Egan, the Australian actor who plays David (in this version, a farmboy/mechanic), said he grew up hearing the original biblical tale in church and was intrigued when he learned there was an effort to modernize it for television.

"I was curious about how that was going to work out, because I always saw it as a swords-and-sandals piece," said Egan, taking a break between shooting scenes at a historic Nassau County estate on a recent cold winter afternoon. "But then I read it and I just, wow -- the way Michael Green told the story, I just had to go for it."

Green, whose mother is Israeli, said the idea came to him during a trip to Jerusalem several years ago.

"A lot of feelings and emotions of the Bible are still resonant today," he said. "I've always been taken with a hero's journey, and the King David story in the Bible is one of the most classic hero journey's tales."

Green wrote the pilot during his first season working on NBC's "Heroes," in the middle of the Bush administration.