A Glimpse into Narnia

by Brandon Fibbs

Can't get enough of Narnia? Well, the official Narnia Facebook page posted the first images from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader over the holiday break. Check them out here.

The film hits theaters on December 10th, 2010.

Bring Donald Miller to Your Small Group!

New DVD series, with Miller and guests, sparks good questions and discussions

by Mark Moring

I recently received three DVDs called "Convergence" -- not movies or TV programming, but helpful discussion starters featuring Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz) holding conversations with a number of thoughtful Christians (Phyllis Tickle, Lauren Winner, Tremper Longman, Dan Allender).

The videos are meant to be used in small-group settings, and I've already "beta" tested the first one -- "Breaking the Ice: Learning to Share Our Stories" -- with our own couples Bible study group. Other than Miller's interesting interview with Tickle (see image at right) on what makes a good story (and what doesn't), the DVD does a nice job of encouraging groups to share their own stories with one another -- stories that go beyond the superficial and dig deeper beneath the surface. There are also a handful of thoughtful discussion questions with each. Our group will be implementing some of their tips as we tell our own stories to one another in the weeks and months ahead.

Learn more about the Convergence series here.

TV Preachers: Everything BUT the Gospel?

Woman asks them how to receive Christ, but has a hard time getting a straight answer

by Mark Moring

Our friend Phil Cooke recently tipped us off to this story:

Mary Hutchinson of Inspired Direct, a direct mail and fundraising company for non-profits, churches, and ministries, conducted an interesting experiment recently. She sent a simple letter, under an assumed name, to dozens of TV ministries that claim to be about "winning the lost." She enclosed a $20 bill with each letter and asked "how to accept Jesus in my heart."

The good news: She got responses from 95 percent of the ministries. The bad? Less than 25 percent gave her a simple, direct answer to her question about how to become a Christian.

Hutchinson writes: "If we are really about evangelism, how could this be? The most impressive of all responses was a simple letter from a smaller ministry that walked me down the road to salvation. It was personal, direct and spoke to me from the heart. A few others had small books dedicated to doing that as well; they just presented it in a more formal manner. Another 20 percent sent me packages that contained a book, or a handful of books and DVDs, but none gave a direct answer to the most important question of all. In fact, one up-and-coming TV preacher sent me such a large package of "stuff" that it cost him $8.10 to mail it to me!"

Read Hutchinson's observations here.

Empowering Girls & Women

Six flicks that address 'the girl effect' -- the payoff of investing in women worldwide.

by Mark Moring

Radical Womanhood blogger Carolyn McCulley is impressed with the recent book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. So she is compiling a list of documentaries "in order to help us all understand the plight of women in other nations."

Her initial list includes these six films: A Walk to Beautiful, Lumo, Mrs. Goundo's Daughter, Afghan Star, As We Forgive, and At the End of Slavery.

To that list I would add Pray the Devil Back to Hell (mentioned here) and The Stoning of Soraya M. What other films would you recommend?

Are you Mooning over "New Moon?"

Are you a Fan?

by Brandon Fibbs

The Twilight Saga: New Moon had the best open of 2009, beating out last year’s The Dark Knight for highest opening night, though it did not beat The Dark Knight’s weekend numbers.

Our review of the film wasn’t especially favorable, but we’re curious what you thought. Much has been made of author Stephanie Meyer’s devout Mormonism and the manner in which her worldview, especially that of abstinence until marriage, has become a crucial (if unconscious) theme for the series.

Do you let your teenagers watch Twilight? Perhaps you are a fan. Do you take issue with the world Twilight has created—like many who find Harry Potter unsavory—or do you find Twilight resonates with a greater spiritual dimension like the universes of Tolkien and Lewis?

"Avatar" on "60 Minutes"

James Cameron discusses his new film

by Brandon Fibbs

Did you miss 60 Minutes last night? If you did, you missed Morley Safer's interview with James Cameron and their discussion of his upcoming 3-D film, Avatar. They talk about everything from Cameron's origins story to his plans after the release of his $400 million dollar, three hour epic sci-fi film. If you didn't see it on a large, HD television, this video will give you only the slightest inkling of how utterly breathtaking the film looks.

Check it out after the jump.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Drew Barrymore, Welcome to the Fight Club!

Blu-Ray release of cult classic includes gag menu by director David Fincher

by Mark Moring

Fans of 1999's Fight Club have been anxiously awaiting the Blu-Ray version, which released this week. They were in for quite a surprise when they first popped the disc into their player, when up comes a menu that looks nothing like the hard-edged film it's introducing:

It's a cute/cuddly Drew Barrymore, with LOTS of pink lipstick all over the menu . . . for her 1999 film, Never Been Kissed.

It's no error; the real menu pops up after a few seconds. Fincher himself orchestrated the prank. Read more about it here.

'Fireproof' Filmmakers Announce Next Movie

'Courageous' about fathers 'rising with courage.' Plus other religious movie news.

by Mark Moring

Sunday's evening service was anything but "regular" at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. An air of expectancy and members of the media were on hand to hear about the next film from Sherwood Pictures, which had already made Facing the Giants and Fireproof.

At Sunday's service, filmmakers Alex and Steven Kendrick announced that the next film will be called Courageous. Production will begin in March; no release date has been announced.

“The movie is about fatherhood,” Alex Kendrick said at the announcement.

Keep reading for further details about the film . . .

“Four fathers who are all in law enforcement—who protect and serve together—go through a terrible tragedy," said Alex Kendrick. "They begin looking at their role as fathers . . . and they begin challenging one another to fulfill God’s intention for fathers." Steven Kendrick added, "God's call is for men to rise with courage in their homes and be strong in their leadership."

Alex Kendrick also promised "action beyond what we've ever done before, you'll see tension, drama, a little bit of romance, and a good deal of humor as well. But more than that, a message that we believe God wants us to present through this project."

For more info and to see the announcement video, go to the official website.
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The River Within, a new film from Cloud Ten Pictures (the Left Behind Movies), released to DVD last week. It's about a somewhat disillusioned young man pursuing his law degree, looking for the meaning of life -- and he apparently finds some answers while volunteering as a counselor at a Christian youth camp.
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Want to know more about the "strange warming" that made John Wesley such a great preacher and one of the greats in the halls of Christian faith? Then you might check out Wesley, a new film from Foundery Pictures. The official website describes it thus: "His ministry is controversial, there is mob violence, confrontation, and tension followed by his victorious preaching to thousands in his home town. In short, this true story has everything that Hollywood loves to put into movies!"
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A gay Mormon filmmaker has made a movie about his church's activism against gay marriage in California. The film, 8: The Mormon Proposition, sprung from Reed Cowan's conversations with his sister about her support for Proposition 8. "I thought, if this is the dialogue in my Mormon family, then what is like in other Mormon households," the Miami-area filmmaker and former Utah television journalist said in an AP story.

'Your lies and tactics are odious to me'

So said Anne Rice to a producer who was supposed to turn her Jesus story into a movie

by Mark Moring

David Kirkpatrick, who once partnered with George Barna to form a fledgling film studio called Good News Holdings, had announced to the world in 2006 that his company was going to turn Anne Rice's first Christian book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, into a major motion picture.

Turns out he was wrong. GNH never really got off the ground, and then Kirkpatrick--who had been an exec at Disney, Touchstone, and Paramount--announced he was taking the company to Massachusetts and changing the name to Plymouth Rock Studios. Turns out he was wrong again.

In a recent in-depth story, The Boston Globe reports that Kirkpatrick and the venture never had any legitimate financial backing.

Rice, the former vampire novel writer who became a Christian some time ago, had agreed to let GNH turn Out of Egypt into a film, but withdrew that offer when she never got paid. The Globe obtained a stinging e-mail that Rice sent to Kirkpatrick, voicing her concerns and her disgust with the way he had handled things.

In the 4-page document, Rice tells Kirkpatrick, "You were not paying me as you had agreed to do, and you did not have the funds to make good on your promises, and you did not have the funds to make a film. . . . At no time did you reveal to me that you were having financial problems." Late, after noting her disappointment that Kirkpatrick had threatened legal action to get Rice to cooperate, she writes, "David, you broke my heart" and "Your lies and tactics are odious to me." She notes that she will never relinquish the book's rights to Kirkpatrick.

The Globe story is fascinating, essentially exposing a man for grand promises that he had no means to fulfill, regardless of his optimism, passion, and ambition. But the bottom line is that he had no bottom line, and that is the main reason the studio still essentially is only a thought.

Check out the newspaper's 7-minute video on the situation:

Disney Housecleaning Continues

Industry veteran Mark Zoradi resigns suddenly after weak opening for 'Christmas Carol'

by Mark Moring

Less than two months after the ouster of Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook, the studio is continuing its shake-up with the departure of Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion pictures group. Zoradi had been with the company for 29 years.

The Los Angeles Times notes that "under the direction of Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger, the Burbank studio is being remade by Cook's successor, Rich Ross, former president of Disney Channels Worldwide."

I don't want to read anything into this, but it's worth noting that Cook and Zoradi are both devout Christians. (We interviewed Zoradi a couple years ago.)

The Times also noted that Zoradi's departure followed a weak opening weekend ($30 million) for Disney's A Christmas Carol, which cost $200 million to make and tens of millions more to market. One analyst estimated that the studio could lose $50 to $100 million on the film.

The Huffington Post, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, and Screen Daily weigh in on the story.

'Hollywood picking on us Christians'

So says one blogger about 2012; another says the director lacks, er, gumption (sort of).

by Mark Moring

A week from today, Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic epic 2012 hits the big screen, and the trailer clearly shows such iconic Christian sites as the Sistine Chapel, Saint Peter’s Basilica, and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro (in the poster at left) all come a-tumblin' down when all heck breaks loose on doomsday.

What you don't see getting smashed to smithereens are any Islamic holy places -- and that has at least a couple of bloggers mad.

Calling director Emmerich a "coward," a blogger for The American Catholic writes, "This is just another example of Hollywood picking on us Christians. 'Us' Christians call this behavior bigotry in the form of Christophobia. More commonly known as anti-Christian or more specifically anti-Catholicism in the case of this film." The blogger goes on to note that Emmerich was concerned about having a fatwa (essentially a Muslim death threat) on his head.

Meanwhile, at Big Hollywood, Greg Gutfield writes, "Where are Roland Emmerich’s balls?" He notes that Emmerich had said "he hoped to destroy the Kaaba, an Islamic holy site, but his fellow screenwriter Harald Kloser persuaded him not to" -- again, out of the fear of fatwa. Gutfield writes: "Hollywood screws with Christians because Christians don’t behead people. But tweak Islam, and you could end up like director Theo van Gogh – dead on a street with a flag impaled on your chest. Roland picks the safe target because he’d rather live . . . [This] proves that Roland has the gonads of a shrimp."

As for Emmerich, here's his explanation, in his words, for not destroying anything Islamic: "We have to all, in the western world, think about this. You can actually let Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have ... a fatwa. So it's just something which I kind of didn't [think] was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out."

For what it's worth, the early teaser trailer for 2012 shows some sort of Himalayan holy man -- presumably a Buddhist -- biting the dust first. (He's pictured in the screen capture at left.) So, it's not like Emmerich was just picking on the Christians.

Here's the latest trailer:

Megachurches Get a Movie!

Also: 'Friends for Life' lauded; 'Love Comes' in a boxed set; and capitalism saves the planet

by Mark Moring

We've got movies about the end of the world, about wild things, about paranormal activity, about criminals, and now about . . . megachurches? Whassup with that?

That's exactly what Morgan Mead, a young Christian filmmaker from Indiana, wanted to know. Why are there so many megachurches, what's the phenomena all about, and just what is their role in American Christendom? Mead pursues answers to these questions, and more, in The Alpha and the Mega, now available on DVD.

In a recent interview, Mead explained why he decided to look into the megachurch mythos . . .

"My wife and I were in Kentucky, and we were looking for a church to go to," he told Metromix Indianapolis. "We went to this enormous church and it was unlike anything I've ever seen. I grew up in smaller churches. It was interesting to me, so I started researching. What I found is that there is a lot of disagreement about their tactics and the way they do things versus a smaller type church."

Here's the trailer:

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Friends for Life, a full length, live action motion picture from Grizzly Adams Productions, has been selected to receive a Redemptive Storyteller Award by the Virginia-based Redemptive Film Festival.
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The complete Love Comes Softly film series, based on the books by Janette Oke and including several directed by Michael Landon Jr., comes to DVD in a boxed set on December 1, Fox Home Entertainment has announced. The eighth and final film, Love Finds a Home, releases on Nov. 10, followed by the complete set a few weeks later.
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While Michael Moore decries the "evils" of capitalism, another new documentary champions it as a way to save the world. The New Recruits follows Joel Montgomery, a Christian from Alabama, and two other business school grads who are using social entrepreneurship to help the poor. The film documents Montgomery's year-long quest to help rural Pakistani farmers counter an impeding water crisis using drip irrigation systems as an alternative to flooding their fields. More info at HuffPost and CBN.

LOTR Producer to Make Biopic on Muhammad

Barry Osborne, who produced The Lord of the Rings films, wants to 'bridge cultures'

by Mark Moring

The producer who brought us messiah types in The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings films now plans to make a major film about the prophet Muhammad, London's Guardian reports.

Osborne says the $150 million biopic will be "an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam."

Qatar-based Alnoor Holdings is footing the bill for the film, to begin shooting in the first quarter of 2011, said Raja Sharif, Alnoor's vice-president for international affairs. Sharif also said the movie will respect Islamic traditions forbidding images of the prophet, so Muhammad himself "will not appear," Sharif said.

According to Islam Online, Ahmed Abdullah Al-Mustafa, chairman of Alnoor Holdings, told the Doha-based Al-Jazeera television that the film "will highlight the humanity of Prophet Muhammad.”

Big Hollywood blogger John Nolte isn't all too thrilled with the news, saying this about the film's respect for Islam by not picturing Muhammad: "If only such respect was extended to every major religion. Which isn’t to say religion, including Christianity, is above satire, but what we have here is another example of the mindset of those who control the most powerful propaganda machine ever created. Think about it: The Passion remains one of the most profitable films ever and yet an industry frequently ridiculed for reproducing ad nauseum anything resembling a hit will have none of it."

Nolte's post prompted this retort from LA Times blogger Patrick Goldstein: "The news has aroused a storm of derision from conservative bloggers, who always find a way to be offended by any high-minded Hollywood project."

Stay tuned.

Looking for Laughs? Look No Further

'Thou Shalt Laugh 4' brings plenty of yuks into your living room

by Mark Moring

Sometimes the best cure for stress and anxiety is a good laugh, and there are plenty of them on Thou Shalt Laugh 4, which released to DVD today. I've enjoyed previous installments of this series, and this one may be the funniest yet.

Though billed as "Christian comedy," don't roll your eyes. (I know what you're thinking!) Yes, it's clean, but it's also really funny -- proving that the terms "Christian" and "funny" don't have to be mutually exclusive. (Even an oxymoron could figure that one out.)

There are a lot of funny moments on the disc, but the funniest come from Michael Jr., whose schticks on "creepy Christians," the "oversaved" and the pressure of being Jesus's little brother are all worth the price of admission. I like what the comedian says on his own website: “If I’m in a club, my material has to be clean enough to work in a church. If I’m in a pulpit, it has to be funny enough to work in a club.” Amen to that.

Watch the trailer here:

'Wings of Desire' Hits Criterion Collection

Wim Wenders' artful masterpiece gets Criterion's royal treatment in a new release

by Mark Moring

Somewhere in Seattle, my friend Jeffrey Overstreet -- a longtime critic for CT Movies -- is drooling: His favorite film of all time, Wings of Desire, is being released on DVD and Blu-Ray today by the classy Criterion Collection, with all sorts of bonus features.

Anybody who knows Jeffrey, who had to step away from CT Movies a few months ago, knows that he can gush for hours about Wings and its brilliant director, Wim Wenders. You can read some of Jeffrey's thoughts in a Filmmakers of Faith piece he wrote about Wenders here, and his more recent thoughts on the new version here. (Re: that last link to Filmwell -- some fabulous stuff at that site, very thoughtful commentaries and reviews on film. I encourage you to check it out.)

Criterion has posted a few interesting pieces about the film too, including a commentary by Wenders himself, and musings by Michael Atkinson. They've also posted the original trailer from the film (caution: brief nudity).

The special edition of the movie includes a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by Wenders; audio commentary featuring Wenders and actor Peter Falk; The Angels Among Us (2003), a documentary featuring interviews with Wenders, Falk, actors Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander, writer Peter Handke, and composer Jürgen Knieper; deleted scenes and outtakes; and much more.

A Glimpse into Narnia

Bring Donald Miller to Your Small Group!

TV Preachers: Everything BUT the Gospel?

Empowering Girls & Women

Are you Mooning over "New Moon?"

"Avatar" on "60 Minutes"

Drew Barrymore, Welcome to the Fight Club!

'Fireproof' Filmmakers Announce Next Movie

'Your lies and tactics are odious to me'

Disney Housecleaning Continues