Newsbites: The biblical spin-offs edition!

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1. The Lion of Judah is the first computer-animated feature to be made in South Africa, and it happens to concern a bunch of barnyard animals who witness the events surrounding the first Easter. The eclectic cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Sandi Patty and Bruce Marchiano, who played Jesus in the Visual Bible adaptations of Matthew (1993) and Acts (1994) and will apparently do so again for this film. The Lion of Judah doesn't seem to have either a distributor or a firm release date lined up just yet, but in the meantime, you can watch a trailer for the film at its official website. -- Variety, Cartoon Brew

2. Universal Pictures, having scored a major international hit with the Abba-themed musical Mamma Mia! last year, is now developing a remake of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973). One director the studio has spoken to -- though they're not in active negotiations with anyone just yet -- is Marc Webb, whose credits include numerous music videos as well as the current indie hit (500) Days of Summer. -- Hollywood Reporter

3. Year One is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray in October -- and the bonus features will include an "alternate ending" currently titled "Sodom Destruction". Will there be pillars of salt? -- IGN

4. Magdalena, the comics-based action flick about a modern-day superhero descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene, now has a writer and a director. The writer is Holly Brix, whose credits include The Butterly Effect 3: Revelations; and the director is Ryûhei Kitamura, whose last film was Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train (2008). Hmmm. Jenna Dewan and Luke Goss, the latter of whom played the title character in One Night with the King (2006), are still attached to star. -- Variety, Hollywood Reporter

Most Easily Offended by Movies: Mormons

Jehovah's Witnesses second, evangelicals third, according to poll

by Mark Moring

Just recently, we posted a blog bit about the top "faith-offending" films. Now we've learned which faith group is most easily offended: Mormons.

According to a recent Religion News Service story, "Mormons are the faith group most likely to say Hollywood threatens their values, followed by Jehovah's Witnesses and evangelicals, according to a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life."

The story also noted that "more than two-thirds of Mormons (68%) rebuffed the entertainment industry, followed by 54% of Jehovah's Witnesses and 53% of evangelicals. Less than half (42%) of the general population said Hollywood threatens their values."

Newsbites: The children's literature edition!

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1. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader began principal photography yesterday ... and it sounds like the filmmakers may once again be adding more unnecessary peril and more gratuitous World War II footage to C.S. Lewis's story. The film's press release suggests that King Caspian and the others are embarking on their "entirely uncharted journey to Aslan's Country" in order to "save Narnia, and all the astonishing creatures in it, from an unfathomable fate." And last month, a casting agency was looking for actors to play English soldiers and nurses bidding farewell to each other. Somehow these bits don't jibe with my memory of the book.

Many other little facts about the film have been collected and collated by the indefatigable fans at NarniaWeb.com, such as: cinematographer Dante Spinotti plans to use the same digital camera on this film that he used on Michael Mann's Public Enemies; the Dufflepuds may be CGI; and the new cast members will include Bruce Spence as Lord Rhoop. Spence has had small parts in a number of threequels, including The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), but he may be best-known among genre buffs for his parts in the last two Mad Max movies (1981-1985).

2. Paramount is developing a new film version of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, the Robert C. O'Brien novel that was previously turned by Don Bluth into an animated film called The Secret of NIMH (1982). Neil Burger, director of The Illusionist (2006), is working on the script, and former Walden Media executive Cary Granat is on board to produce. It has been suggested that the new film may be getting the go-ahead because of the popularity of recent rodent movies such as Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) and G-Force, the latter of which was #1 in the United States this past weekend (though only #3 in Canada). -- Hollywood Reporter

3. Harry Potter director David Yates says the two halves of Deathly Hallows will be very different from one another. The first film "is very verité and documentary and edgy and on the road," and it will feature "a lot of hand-held camera work," while the second film will "bring that fantasy world back in full Cinemascope" and be "a big opera basically, a great big epic with huge battles and very oddly moving, because it concludes the whole saga really. So they're two very different films." Oh, and Bill Nighy -- one of my favorite actors -- will be playing Rufus Scrimgeour, the new Minister of Magic. -- ComingSoon.net, Vanity Fair, BBC News

4. Framelight Productions is developing a film series based on Ian Beck's The Secret History of Tom Truehart and its sequels. The fantasy novels concern "a young boy and his older brothers in the Land of Stories." -- Hollywood Reporter

Yet another Darwin drama in the works!

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Last week, I mentioned that there were one and maybe two new movies about Charles Darwin coming up in the near future, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. Now comes word that yet another movie in that vein is in the works.

National Geographic Television, which is best known for producing documentaries, announced a few days ago that they have just finished principal photography on their first-ever dramatic production, a two-hour movie called Darwin's Darkest Hour that will air on the PBS series Nova October 6. Like Creation, the upcoming Jon Amiel film based on a book by one of Darwin's descendants, Darwin's Darkest Hour will focus on Darwin's relationships with his dying daughter and his devoutly Christian wife as he struggles to write his famous book.

Incidentally, Charles Darwin himself will be played in this film by Henry Ian Cusick, who is probably best known these days as one of the co-stars on Lost but previously got good notices for his performance as Jesus in The Visual Bible's adaptation of The Gospel of John. Darwin's wife Emma will be played by Frances O'Connor, who has starred in such films as Mansfield Park and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Sand dunes in three dimensions, please!

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Last year, in my review of Journey to the Center of the Earth, I wrote:

Many of the more impressive scenes involve computer-generated backgrounds and other kinds of special effects, such as a sequence involving a loose bridge of levitating rocks that stretches across a deep, deep chasm. But there is wonder and awe to be had in some of the natural scenery, too. As Trevor, Sean and Hannah hike up an Icelandic volcano near the beginning of the film, we can see the other mountains and the landscape stretch for miles around them, and it's almost enough to make you wonder what an epic, scenic film like, say, Lawrence of Arabia could have looked like if it had been produced in 3D.

I am happy to report that Jeffrey Wells now shares my curiosity.

Archangels with machine guns at the end of the world

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It's getting to the point where you could almost base a small theology course on Paul Bettany movies.

The actor has already played an albino assassin monk in The Da Vinci Code, a priest on the lam who joins a medieval morality-play troupe in The Reckoning, and a famous scientist who wrestles with his doubts in the upcoming biopic Creation, and he will soon star in the comic-book adaptation Priest as a man of the cloth who turns against the church to track down some vampires who have kidnapped his niece.

Right now, however, the religion-themed movie of his that's getting all the attention is Legion, in which Bettany will play the machine-gun-toting archangel Michael; director Scott Stewart appeared with co-stars Bettany, Tyrese Gibson and others at the San Diego Comic-Con to promote the film yesterday, and they unveiled a new poster for the film and a few clips, besides.

The premise of this film is more than a little cheesy, not to mention theologically suspect. As Variety put it last year:

Scripted by Stewart and Peter Schink, the thriller casts Bettany as the archangel Michael, the only one standing between mankind and an apocalypse, after God loses faith in humanity. Man's lone hope rests with a group of strangers who must deliver a baby they realize is Christ in his second coming.

And whereas the word "Legion" typically brings to mind the many demons who possessed a single man in Jesus' day (Mark 5:9; Luke 8:30), an even earlier story from Variety indicates that this movie is called Legion because "God loses faith in humanity and sends his legion of angels to wipe out the human race for the second time."

And so, FilmoFilia indicates that one of the villains against whom Michael does battle will apparently be the archangel Gabriel, played here by Kevin Durand. (Durand would not be the first actor to play Gabriel as a bad guy; Christopher Walken did it in The Prophecy and its sequels, as did Tilda Swinton in Constantine.)

Personally, I can sort-of handle a movie that imagines what might happen if Gabriel or one of the other "good" angels turns bad. I'm not very keen on the idea, for the same reason I wouldn't be very keen on the idea of movies that depict my friends or family members as bad guys; if we really believe that Gabriel exists and plays a role in our lives, then we can't just treat him as another mythical figure to re-invent as we will. But a part of me appreciates how the shock of seeing Gabriel as a villain can remind us of what it must have been like when Lucifer turned against God.

No, there is something else that bugs me about this movie's premise. Two things, actually.

First, the idea that God would lose faith in humanity and try to wipe us out again. In the other films where Gabriel has turned into a bad guy, he has done so in rebellion against God. But here, it seems that he is working on God's behalf, in which case God himself would seem to be a bad guy, too; at any rate, the heroic Michael, by fighting Gabriel and all the other angels, would ultimately be fighting against God himself.

What makes this movie's premise even more puzzling is the idea that Christ is already here, inside a woman's womb. Why would the God of this film try to wipe out humanity so soon after sending his Son back to Earth?

And that brings me to my second beef with this movie's premise, namely the idea that the Second Coming will be just like the first, with Jesus being born as a baby, etc. Seriously, it never ceases to amaze me how many secular apocalyptic films pursue this line of thought, from Omen III: The Final Conflict to Bless the Child. It completely misses the point of what the Second Coming is all about. It's not going to be a mere reincarnation.

What makes this movie even more of a curiosity is that it features at least two actors who have been rather open about their own Christian faith. Dennis Quaid spoke to us a few years ago about his spiritual journey (he discussed it at the time with Beliefnet, too); and Doug Jones has talked about how he almost turned down the part of Abe Sapien in Hellboy until he read the script and realized how it "nurtured and challenged" his faith. I'd be curious to know what appealed to them about this script.

(Well, okay, Jones, at least, did discuss this point at Comic-Con yesterday, as per the video clip to the right; he says the film explores the possibility that mankind might be "in a place today that would bring about another flood, as in the days of Noah." Make of that what you will.)

Finally, Charles S. Dutton is playing a character named Percy Walker. That has to be some kind of strange in-joke.

Nicky Cruz film update, and more

'Run Baby Run' slated for 2010, Emmy nod for 'Soldiers,' and more

by Mark Moring

A new movie about former gang member Nicky Cruz, whose story was told in The Cross and the Switchblade (the book and the 1970 film starring Pat Boone and Erik Estrada), is on track for release next summer.

Run Baby Run, with a $12 million budget, will be intended for mainstream audiences, not just Christians, David Urabe, president of Convolo Productions, told the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Cruz told The Gazette that it won't be a "cheesy" Christian movie.

> Soldiers of Conscience, a documentary about soldiers who are reluctant to shoot to kill (some because of their Christian faith), has been nominated for an Emmy. We wrote about the film last year.

> Cloud Ten Pictures, the studio that made all the Left Behind movies, announces it will be releasing the DVD version of The River Within in November. The press release says the film "explores relationships between father and son, pastor and congregant, and God and man; and broaches head-on the age-old human dilemma of discerning God's plan for each of us."

The Top Faith-Offending Films

LA Times includes 'Passion,' 'Da Vinci Code,' 'Golden Compass' on list

by Mark Moring

The Los Angeles Times recently put together a feature called "Faith-Offending Films," starting, interestingly, with Falling, the latest film from Richard Dutcher, the former Mormon who had already alienated LDS fans with edgier and edgier movies. (LDS Review refused to review Falling because of its R rating, prompting quite a spirited debate in its comments.)

Included in the Times list was The Passion of The Christ . But why?

The Times wrote that it was offensive to Jews: "Its stark images of Jesus' crucifixion and the violence toward him, as well as villainous portrayals of many Jewish people, created a religious furor. Rabbis around the world said the film had the potential to transmit potent negative images, attitudes, stereotypes and caricatures about Jews and Judaism." (In an essay for CT, Jewish critic Michael Medved argued that it shouldn't have been offensive to Jews.)

Also on the Times list: Angels & Demons (for offensiveness to Catholics), The Golden Compass (Catholics), The Love Guru (Hindus), Submission (Muslims), and a few more. Curiously, the list also includes Team America: World Police, for its offensiveness to "lots of red-blooded Americans, least of all a certain Mr. Sean Penn," and Tropic Thunder, for offending "disability groups." What those two have to do with "faith" escapes me.

Meanwhile, the UK's Future Movies put together a list of The Top Ten Controversial Films, which includes Lars von Trier's upcoming Anti Christ (releasing in the US in October). Their reason? Because it "has achieved notoriety quickly by distinguishing itself from the current onslaught of ‘torture porn’ films with extensive visceral action. Outraged critics have responded badly to explicit scenes of genital mutilation, attempted murder, vigorous sex scenes and a graphic masturbation sequence." Yes, even normally open-minded critics are outraged. It does sound pretty outrageous.

Blue Like Effing Jazz?

The filmmakers behind 'Blue Like Jazz' ask: How much cussing is too much?

by Mark Moring

Steve Taylor, director of the someday-upcoming Blue Like Jazz movie (based on the Donald Miller book of the same title), wonders just how many bad words to include in the film. Since the story is set on what the book calls "the most godless campus in America," Taylor and his co-writers--including Miller--believed that truthful storytelling would include at least a bit of bad language, leaving some to wonder just how "blue" the script might be.

Writes Taylor on the BLJ website: "While the CussCount for Blue Like Jazz is lower than Al Pacino's shootout scene in Scarface, it is considerably higher than all the Pixar movies combined.

"For most of you reading this – No Big Deal. . . . [You] expect, in a movie like ours, to hear a certain number of ****s, ****s, ***es, and possibly even the judicious use of ******* when spoken solely as an adjective."

Taylor went on to write that his posting was an "olive branch" to fans who want the language "scrubbed," adding, "We're open to your suggestions. Really. Please post a reply with your favorite non-curse word or phrase, use it in a sentence, and we'll try out the best ones as alternate takes."

The Exorcist comes to Blu-Ray ... sort of.

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High-Def Digest reports that Warner Brothers plans to release The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen on Blu-Ray later this year. There is no official word yet on whether the disc will include the original 1973 version of the film, but given the announced title -- which was given to the film when it was re-issued in 2000 with extra scenes and special effects -- it doesn't seem likely.

If the original version of the film is left off the disc, then that would be a pity, since the revised version, despite a few improvements, is basically inferior to the original version, thanks to some cheesy bits that I discussed at my blog three years ago. What's more, the original version of the film is long overdue for a remastering as it is; the only edition of it on DVD, at least in North America, is a single-layer disc produced for the film's 25th anniversary in 1998. (The revised version was released on a dual-layer disc in 2000.)

But an even bigger potential problem lurks in the shadows here. What if the Blu-Ray contains not the second version of the film that was released in 2000, but some brand-new third version? What if it really is a version that we've never seen? There would certainly be a precedent for this: director William Friedkin caused a huge controversy earlier this year when he produced a rather ugly-looking version of The French Connection (1971) for Blu-Ray, and there's no reason to assume he wouldn't do the same thing to this film. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Darwin biopic to open Toronto film festival

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It has been 200 years since Charles Darwin was born, and 150 years since he published his revolutionary book On the Origin of Species. So, naturally, filmmakers are marking the occasion by making rival biopics.

The higher-profile of these, by far, seems to be Creation, starring real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Charles Darwin and his wife Emma; the Toronto International Film Festival announced last week that its opening gala presentation this year will be the world premiere of this film, which was directed by Jon Amiel and based on a book by Randal Keynes.

(Trivia note: Keynes himself is the great-great-grandson of the Darwins, and he is also the father of Skandar, who plays Edmund in the Narnia movies. So one of the "sons of Adam" who sits on one of the thrones at Cair Paravel is also a "son of Darwin"!)

The TIFF press release describes the Creation story arc this way:

Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, part heart-wrenching love story Creation is the story of Charles Darwin. His great, still controversial, book The Origin of Species depicts nature as a battleground. In Creation the battleground is a man's heart. Torn between his love for his deeply religious wife and his own growing belief in a world where God has no place, Darwin finds himself caught in a struggle between faith and reason, love and truth.

The Darwin we meet in Creation is a young, vibrant father, husband and friend whose mental and physical health gradually buckles under the weight of guilt and grief for a lost child. Ultimately it is the ghost of Annie, his adored 10-year-old daughter, who leads him out of darkness and helps him reconnect with his wife and family. Only then is he able to write the book that changed the world.

Some viewers may recall that Bettany played another early-19th-century naturalist in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World -- only there, his character seemed okay with the idea that God and evolution could co-exist. It will be interesting to see if these two ideas are presented as complete opposites in Creation, or if any common ground will be allowed between them. (If the film is co-presented by Mel Gibson's Icon Films, how atheist could it be?)

Meanwhile, another film about the scientist and his wife is reportedly in the works. Mrs. Darwin will reportedly star Joseph Fiennes and Rosamund Pike, though it is not clear how far along this production is yet, or even whether the cameras have begun to roll on it.

Expelled co-writer tackles Christian Zionism

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Kevin Miller must like controversy. Last year, the screenwriter and occasional actor co-wrote the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which provoked a lot of debate about creationism, evolution, Intelligent Design, and the social ramifications thereof. And now, this year, he has a new documentary coming out that just might offend some of the conservatives who rallied to his previous film's defense.

As Miller puts it at his blog:

It's called "With God on Our Side," and it examines a phenomenon known as Christian Zionism. This theology teaches that the Jews are God's chosen people and that they have a divine right to the land of Israel. Aspects of this belief system lead some Christians in the West to give uncritical support to Israeli government policies, even those that privilege Jews at the expense of Palestinians. This leads to great suffering for Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike and threatens Israel's security as a whole.

Our film suggests that there is a biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel, a theology that doesn't favor one people group over another but instead promotes peace and reconciliation for Jews and Palestinians.

The filmmakers hope to release the movie sometime later this year, and it should be interesting to see what kind of debates this movie provokes.

Can a New Breed of Indie Romcoms Save this Summer?

by Brandon Fibbs

In an upcoming review of the movie Adam, I write, "This has been a surprising summer for a number of reasons, one of which is how dreadfully dull most of the big popcorn films have been. The other is the extraordinary ability of a handful of tiny, independent films to redeem the season utterly. These films, from Away We Go to (500) Days of Summer and now Adam, are the antidote to the summer blight, delivering smart, hilarious, moving and cosmically life-affirming stories."

According to my latest copy of "Entertainment Weekly," they would seem to agree.

In an article titled "Quirky Love," Christine Spines, while not specifically addressing the injection of romantic indies into summer fare, nonetheless highlights a recent and upcoming crop of independent, offbeat romantic comedies "taking aim at Hollywood's long love affair with cliches."

These films are being hailed for their realistic portrayals of love--not some cotton candy version of romance, but an honest evaluation of love as something messy, awkward, complex and requiring lots of work.

Spine's piece compares these comedies (in which she also includes the upcoming quasi-documentary Paper Moon) as films that harken back to the John Hughes movies of the 1980s--movies full of romantic angst, children who've lived through divorce, and couples endowed with an active skepticism of marriage.

But that, while tragic on some level, is at least honest. And it is connecting with audiences, if not necessarily studio heads.

"The problem," Spines writes, "is that the nascent little genre hasn't produced enough breakout hits like Juno to persuade the studios to truly rethink their ways. As a result, funny, complex romances are still a tough sell in Hollywood."

I haven't enjoyed any movie this year more than (500) Days of Summer. But then, I suppose I'm the demographic they're aiming for. Demographic or not, anyone who has spent any amount of time in a serious, long term, adult relationship knows that Hollywood is hardly honest when it comes to portrayals of authentic romance. So perhaps that's why this summer's batch of romantic comedies (and romantic tragedies) is so hitting home with me and so many others.

Honestly, after all, is always the best policy, even in Hollywood.

Will the Real Bilbo Please Stand Up

by Brandon Fibbs

Other than impending litigation, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson have been doing a marvelous job keeping an information black hole on both real news and rumors regarding The Hobbit. Which is probably why I feel the need to mention this:

According to the L.A. Times, three actors are in contention to play Bilbo Baggins. They are David Tennant, James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe. Tennant is best known for his current role on the BBC series, Doctor Who. McAvoy, who exploded onto the scene just a few years ago, is everywhere from The Last King of Scotland to Wanted. And Radcliffe, as if you need the reminder, is Harry Potter.

I think all three of these actors are interesting choices. However, what fascinates me the most is the fantasy intersection of the roles.

Radcliffe's is obvious. If he is chosen, he will undoubtedly be a participant in two of the most successful and beloved fantasy franchises the world has ever seen. But at 20, is he too young for the role? And will audiences be able to separate the boy wizard from the hairy-footed hobbit?

I'm not sure I find the tall, nearly 40, quirky Tennant hobbit material but I'm willing to sleep on it. There's a lot that can be done with the magic of CGI.

McAvoy, lest we forget, also got his start (at least, insofar as Americans are concerned) in another adored fantasy series which has struggled to find its footing on screen--as Mr. Tumnus the faun in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first in the C.S. Lewis series often uttered in the same breathe with his friend and colleague J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. For me anyway, McAvoy may be the best choice.

These are, I remind you, only rumors, and as ComicCon prepares to rear its head in San Diego next week, some of those rumors are already being tamped down. But still, we can dream, right?

What do you think of these casting possibilities? Who would you place in this role?

An Anti-Adoption Film?

That's how critics of upcoming 'Orphan' are responding

by Mark Moring

"Adoption advocacy groups are criticizing the soon-to-be-release horror movie Orphan for fueling harmful myths that could turn people away from the idea of adoption," reports The Christian Post.

The story continues: "A coalition of more than 50 orphan advocate and adoption organizations recently launched a national grassroots campaign centered around the website www.OrphansDeserveBetter.org. Through the site, the coalition aims to educate, dispel adoption myths and prompt response to the needs of orphans."

Stryper merchandise on the big screen!

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You didn't have to be a Christian to know about Stryper back in the 1980s. Unlike most other Christian rock bands of that era, Stryper, which supposedly got its name from Isaiah 53:5 ("by his stripes we are healed"), toured with secular bands and released its albums on a secular label. But for all their mainstream exposure, I don't believe they ever got played or mentioned in any of the movies made back then.

The filmmakers of today certainly haven't forgotten about them, though. If you look very closely at a couple of recent films, you can see that bits of Stryper iconography have begun to pop up, here and there, on the big screen.

Last year, in Wendy and Lucy, we saw a card or sticker bearing the Stryper logo in the office of a grocery-store manager who sends a woman's life spinning in an unfortunate direction after she is caught shoplifting by an employee who happens to be wearing a cross around his neck. The images are very subtle, but they do suggest that the woman is being judged, in some sense, by religious people who, for whatever reason, have refused to show her mercy.

And now we have the trailer for Whip It!, the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore and the first film to star Ellen Page since her breakout role in Juno. Note the T-shirt that Page's character wears in what seem to be at least three different scenes, in the final minute of the trailer below:

So, what does the T-shirt signify? Well, the movie is based on a book by Shauna Cross called Derby Girl, and here is what it says on pages 100-101:

In an effort to shake off the pink-suit residue and reclaim my personal identity, I wear my favorite thrift-store T-shirt to school the next day: a baseball tee featuring Stryper, circa 1984.

Who's Stryper, you ask? Only the most perfectly awful '80s, Christian, heavy-metal rock band ever. Not that I knew this when I found my beloved T-shirt. I simply swooned over the image of five (sic) guys trying to look tough with their big, permed hair, gobs of makeup, and skinny yellow-and-black-striped spandex pants. In short, a fashion disaster of such major proportions that I had to spend the four dollars on the shirt. It makes me so happy to wear it.

Seriously. One day when you're completely bored, depressed, or both, Google Stryper and have yourself a laugh-fest. Guaranteed.

There's more, but you can check it out for yourself by reading the book -- or by using Amazon.com's "Look Inside!" feature. Suffice it to say, though, that the T-shirt's fate seems to involve a spoiler or two.

Turning to other bands besides Stryper...

Christian music went mainstream in a big way in the '90s, thanks to cross-over hits by Jars of Clay (whose song 'Flood' played over the closing credits of Hard Rain), Sixpence None the Richer (whose song 'Kiss Me' was featured prominently in She's All That) and others. But with the possible exception of Stryper, Christian musicians in the '80s were a bit more obscure.

So... can you think of any other Christian '80s bands that have been referenced in non-Christian films? Either in the '80s themselves or in more recent films, such as the two mentioned here?

God, Gays, and 'Bruno'

Alabama youth pastor shares faith in new film . . . sorta

by Mark Moring

The outrageous Sacha Baron Cohen pulled one over on an Alabama youth pastor while making his new comedy, Bruno, which opens in theaters on Friday.

Cohen, best known for playing the title role in 2006's Borat, plays a flamboyant homosexual Austrian fashionista in his new film, in which he dupes many into playing along with his con game--including Jody Trautwein, youth pastor at Point of Grace Ministries in Birmingham.

In an interview with Religion News Service, Trautwein admits he was duped, thinking that Cohen really was a gay man seeking counseling. In their time together, Trautwein told Cohen that faith in Christ could help lead him out of homosexuality, and even asked Cohen if he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart. Cohen's smarty-pants reply: "Are you hitting on me?"

Trautwein says he doesn't mind being the brunt of a joke as long as his message ends up in the movie: "It obviously turned out to be just deception and perversion, but the message in my heart is actually going to be shared with millions. It's turning out to be a positive thing. If nothing else, people will hear me sharing Jesus."

Facebook: The Movie

by Brandon Fibbs

Every so often Hollywood comes up with an idea that sounds too harebrained, too ridiculous, too microscopically focused to be of any possible popular good.

If you haven't already heard, they're making a movie about, of all things, Facebook!

So it may surprise you to know that I don't think that the movie, long dubbed simply The Facebook Movie but now saddled with the title The Social Network, bears any relation to the aforementioned derogatory monikers. In fact, I am very excited to see it.

You might think it is because David Fincher is rumored to be directing, in what can only be described as a desire to do something a bit more conventional after the sprawling work that was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. But actually, while I do follow the auteur theory more than I probably should and rank directors as my primary motivation for seeing a film, I am excited for The Social Network because of its scribe, Aaron Sorkin.

Best known for creating and writing the phenomenal The West Wing, Sorkin, a sort of less abrasive but no less blisteringly intelligent and insightful David Mamet, is also responsible for the films A Few Good Men, The American President and Charlie Wilson's War and the television series' Sports Night and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Anyone who knows Sorkin knows he is an incomparable wordsmith and pop political philosopher. But he is more than that. Over his career, Sorkin has shown an affinity for and a strong desire to tell stories of creation - the genesis of ideas that transformed the world and the effect that had on their creators.

In his failed (but certainly not a failure) show Sports Center, Sorkin has a character tell the story of Philo Farnsworth, the creator of the television. He later took this episodic throughline and weaved it into a terrific Broadway production titled, "The Farnsworth Invention." There Sorkin used the invention of the TV as a greater metaphor for ambition, scientific expansion, corporate greed and the tenacity of the everyman.

You may not think the creation of Facebook is as momentous as the creation of television and you might…might…be right. Certainly Facebook, in isolation, is not all that important, but if Facebook stands in for the Internet - the free and instantaneous exchange of knowledge and ideas, and the ability to connect all corners of the globe - then perhaps the filmmakers are on to something. And no one is better suited to tell a story like that than Sorkin.

Recently, ScriptShadow got their hands on the script, an adaptation of the book "Accidental Billionaires," about the founding of the website and the egos that powered it - two Harvard friends who unknowingly unleash a phenomenon that quickly breaks its bonds and runs amok.

ScriptShadow described the film as "a story about greed, about obsession, about our belief that all the money in the world can make us happy. But it's also unpredictable, funny, touching, and sad" with "a lot more humor than I expected - to the point where I wondered if it should be classified as a comedy."

Sounds like classic Sorkin to me. I can't wait to Twitter about it.

Jimmy Stewart and God

The actor discussed his faith and 'It's a Wonderful Life' in 1977 article

by Mark Moring

Remember the scene near the end of It's a Wonderful Life, where Jimmy Stewart, playing the role of George Bailey, breaks down in a pub, crying out to God in utter despair? (Watch the scene here; fast-forward to the 5:30 mark.)

Apparently Stewart wasn't really acting; those tears were real.

In this 1977 article that Stewart wrote for Guideposts, the actor recalls that George "is unaware that most of the people in town are arduously praying for him. In this scene, at the lowest point in George Bailey's life, Frank Capra was shooting a long shot of me slumped in despair. In agony I raise my eyes and following the script, plead, 'God...God...dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if You're up there and You can hear me, show me the way, I'm at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God...'

"As I said those words, I felt the loneliness and hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn, and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing. This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless had reduced me to tears."

In the article, Stewart further discusses the making of the film, his faith, and how his dad held him accountable to attend church once he moved to LA from little Indiana, Pennsylvania. A good read about a fine man and a classic movie.

(Hat tip to Eric David.)

Christianity, Witchcraft, and the Movies

Mix 'em all up, and you've got the fast-growing Nigerian film industry

by Mark Moring

Did you know that Nigeria cranks out 2,500 films per year? Or that most of them are made for less than $10,000? Neither did I. But those are among the statistics we learn about the growing "Nollywood" film industry, as depicted in the documentary Nollywood Babylon.

The film's fascinating trailer (at the end of this post) depicts a director laying hands on a camera and praying over it "in the name of Jesus Christ." One interviewee states that "the films have been taken over by born-again Christianity. . . . Nollywood has become the voice of Africa." Another says, "In a country like this, if you don't have Jesus, you can't survive."

Several media outlets have reviewed the film recently. The Times-Picayune notes that the low-budget films are "built around melodrama and cheeseball special effects." The Epoch Times writes that Nigeria "is a country where many share both an evangelical Christian faith and a lingering fear of witchcraft. If you think such an environment could produce fascinating cinema, you would be correct." And The New York Times writes, "The documentary concludes with a provocative, if shallow, examination of the impact of evangelical Christianity on Nigerian movies," and adds, "for all its limitations, “Nollywood Babylon” serves as an intriguing primer."

Watch the trailer here:

Taking another look at Knowing

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Knowing comes out on DVD today, so now is as good a time as any to take another look at this bizarre but intriguing sci-fi thriller, which was widely panned when it played in theatres (it currently rates a mere 32% at Rotten Tomatoes) but also earned raves from none other than Roger Ebert, who gave the film a four-star review, expanded on the movie's themes in a thoughtful blog post, and then wrote a follow-up piece wondering why so many of his colleagues had gone negative on the film. (Just for the record, I gave it three stars in my own review for CT Movies, and my colleague Brandon Fibbs gave it three-and-a-half.)

There's not a whole lot that can be said about the film without getting into serious spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that the film concerns prophecy, on some level, and it uses biblical imagery at key points, in a way that some critics found awe-inspiring and other critics found cheesy beyond belief. Sonny Bunch of the Washington Times wondered at the time if the film got so many negative reviews because of the religious content itself -- though it should be noted that the film takes these images in directions that are quite different from what the Bible itself does with them.

As it happens, the movie's storyline is at least partly the work of Christian writers. Ryne Pearson, the novelist who wrote the first drafts of the script, is a Catholic and spoke to Angela Walker of Christians in Cinema, as well as Sr. Rose Pacatte, shortly after the movie came out. In those interviews, he hints at some of the changes that were made to the story by the director and other writers -- the controversial ending, for example, did not come from him -- and he talks about how he didn't set out to make a "message movie", but a movie that would explore the "natural" reactions that people might have if they knew that the end was near for them.

He also notes that the film leaves a lot of things open to interpretation. So, interpret away -- and feel free to offer your own take on the movie in the comments below. Does this film use biblical imagery in a positive way? Does it stray too far from the biblical purpose for this imagery? If you lived in the world of this movie, would the events depicted here support or undermine a biblical worldview? Do the film's departures from the Bible illuminate any aspect of the Bible that you hadn't really thought about before? Is this, as some say, just another silly religious flick, like the Left Behind movies? Or is it something deeper and more thought-provoking, as Ebert and others seemed to think?

Ctrl Z to become webisode series

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Last week, I mentioned that a filmmaker named Rob Kirbyson is currently directing a family film called Snowmen for Mpower Pictures, the company created a few years ago by Passion of the Christ producer Steve McEveety. I also mentioned that Kirbyson, who happens to be a Christian, had previously directed a number of short films, including Ctrl Z (2007), which features Zachary Levi of the TV show Chuck in a supporting role.

I learned afterwards that Ctrl Z is currently being spun off into a series of webisodes for NBC Universal, under the slightly shorter title Ctrl. Following in the footsteps of last year's sci-fi series Gemini Division, the new series will give prominent placement to a commercial product, in this case Nestea Red; in the original short film, a man discovers that he can manipulate reality using his computer keyboard after it has been hit accidentally by a football, but in the series, the man will spill a can of Nestea Red on the keyboard instead.

The series, like the film, is being written and directed by Kirbyson; there is no word yet on how many, if any, of the original cast members will be involved, but presumably Levi, at least, is rather busy with his TV show right now. The Los Angeles Times reports, via its 'Technology' blog, that Ctrl will be distributed this summer "through a variety of channels, including Hulu.com, cable video-on-demand services and a dedicated website."

Karl Malden, 1912-2009

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Karl Malden, who passed away this week at the age of 97, is well-known for many roles, from his Oscar-winning performance opposite Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) to the cop he played opposite Michael Douglas on the TV show The Streets of San Francisco (1972-1977). But the first movies of his that I remember seeing as I was growing up were, appropriately enough, movies in which he co-starred with children.

One of those movies was Captains Courageous (1977), an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling story about a spoiled teenaged boy who falls overboard and learns a thing or two about maturity and growing up when he is picked up by a "crusty old sea captain" (as the IMDb puts it) played by Malden. I haven't seen this film in decades, but to this day, I'm pretty sure I can remember how Malden's character -- named Disko Troop, of all things, which makes him sound like a refugee from the Village People -- reluctantly takes the boy under his wing and barks the words, "Right hand, starboard! Left hand, port!" When I started taking canoeing lessons at summer camp a few years later, I credited this film with giving me a head start on the terminology.

The other movie was Pollyanna (1960), the first of several films that Hayley Mills starred in for the Walt Disney studio. Here, Malden played the Rev. Paul Ford, a fire-and-brimstone preacher who changes his ways when the title character, an irrepressibly sunny girl played by the 13-year-old Mills, compels him to look up all the "happy texts" in the Bible. So in some ways, this character was the opposite of Malden's role in Captains Courageous: in the Kipling story, the child learned from Malden, but in the Disney movie, Malden learned from the child.

As I got older and learned more about film, I discovered some of Malden's more iconic roles -- all of which have received renewed attention since Malden's death on Wednesday -- and one or two of the shows he worked on are of particular interest for the Christian moviegoer.

Most notably, Malden played a Catholic priest who takes a stand against corruption and injustice in On the Waterfront (1954), a film that reunited him with his Streetcar Named Desire co-star Brando and director Elia Kazan. (This is the film that gave Brando his famous "I coulda been a contender" spiel.) Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today notes that Malden's character was closely patterned after a real-life priest named Rev. John Corridan, and she asks if a film grounded in the kind of "clear, moral passion" that Malden's character embodied could possibly be made today without being "pigeon-holed in a 'faith film' category". At any rate, it's certainly debatable whether a film of this sort would even be made by a major studio these days, let alone win eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, as On the Waterfront did. (Malden was nominated again in the Supporting Actor category -- along with his On the Waterfront co-stars Lee J. Cobb and Rod Steiger -- but this time, none of them won.)

Decades later, Malden played another Catholic priest, in an episode of The West Wing (2000). This would prove to be Malden's last on-camera performance, and Sr. Rose Pacatte reports that Malden brought with him some liturgical items that he had used when playing the priest in Kazan's film 46 years earlier -- prompting everyone on the West Wing set to "touch these items with reverence because of their link to this great film."

Malden also played a police inspector in I Confess (1953), perhaps the most Catholic film of Alfred Hitchcock's entire career; it concerns a priest who hears a murderer's confession and is then accused of the murder himself, but he cannot clear his name because it would mean violating the secrecy of the confessional.

Malden himself was not Catholic, but Orthodox. His family was actively involved in a Serbian Orthodox church in Gary, Indiana, and Malden kept ties to that community long after he moved to Hollywood. To what extent his attachment was cultural and to what extent it was religious, who can say, but in 2003, he gave a long and fascinating interview to a Serb-American magazine in which he discussed the various churchmen he had known throughout his life, and how he used to attend liturgy with members of Yul Brynner's family, etc. He also talked about how he and his wife of 70 years, who is Jewish, "never really discussed religion", and how his mother was originally Catholic, became Orthodox when she got married, and then became Catholic again when she spent her last days in an old folks' home.

Whatever his own religious inclinations, Malden was by all accounts a gracious and decent man, standing by friends like Kazan when they were all but ostracized within the industry, and enjoying one of the longest marriages of any Hollywood actor ever. He will be missed.

'Sources of Spiritual Power Are Not in the Cinema'

So says John Piper in a blog post about no TV and rare movie watching

by Mark Moring

Are pastors more "relevant" when they refer to contemporary movies and/or include clips in their sermons? John Piper, for one, doesn't think. Matter of fact, he suggests that pastors--indeed most of us--should pretty much stay away from movies altogether.

In a recent post at his Desiring God blog, Piper wrote:

"I think relevance in preaching hangs very little on watching movies, and I think that much exposure to sensuality, banality, and God-absent entertainment does more to deaden our capacities for joy in Jesus than it does to make us spiritually powerful in the lives of the living dead. Sources of spiritual power - which are what we desperately need - are not in the cinema. You will not want your biographer to write: Prick him and he bleeds movies."

Piper went on to say, "If you want to be relevant, say, for prostitutes, don't watch a movie with a lot of tumbles in a brothel. Immerse yourself in the gospel, which is tailor-made for prostitutes; then watch Jesus deal with them in the Bible; then go find a prostitute and talk to her. Listen to her, not the movie. Being entertained by sin does not increase compassion for sinners.

"There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them."

What do you think? Is Piper right? Partly right? Does it "depend on the circumstances"? Weigh in with your opinion in the comments section below, and/or let us know at CT Movies.

God in a Rom-Com?

'Never the Bride,' by 'Ultimate Gift' screenwriter Cheryl McKay, now in development

by Mark Moring

A few years ago, a little movie called The Ultimate Gift didn't get much attention, but it was one of my favorite "hidden gems" of 2006. The film starred Abigail Breslin (now carrying one of the main roles in My Sister's Keeper) as a young girl dying of cancer, part of the plot about a young man who had a lot to learn about what really matters in life.

Cheryl McKay, the screenwriter of that film, has written her next screenplay, Never the Bride, which has also been turned into a novel just released by WaterBrook Press. The film adaptation is scheduled to release sometime in 2010.

Here's how McKay, a Christian, describes the storyline in a recent interview: "It’s about a girl, Jessie Stone, who accuses God of being asleep on the job of setting up her love story. God shows up to face the charges. He tells Jessie that he can’t write her story until she surrenders the pen. The purple pen she’s clutched for many years, penning her own ideas for how her love life should go in her 109 journals. The story is a tug-of-war between God and Jessie and who is really writing this story. Is she too afraid to trust God because he may not write what she truly wants? Or can she surrender that pen to God and let him write the best love story for her?"

Gives New Meaning to 'Family Film'

Homeschool families pool resources to make action adventure epic

by Mark Moring

Cousins Chad and Aaron Burns know a little something about the term "family film." The 20-something former homeschoolers got their families together to form Burns Family Studio, scraped together $250,000, and took three years to make Pendragon: Sword of His Father, which won a "2009 Indie Best of Show" award at the Indie Film Festival.

We haven't seen the film yet, but we have seen the trailer--and for a production made by amateurs, for so little money, it looks surprisingly good. It caught the attention of execs at Trinity Broadcasting Network, which broadcast the film last month and may air it again.

Chad Burns, 27, directs the film, and Aaron, 21, plays the lead role of Artos, a young man in A.D. 411 who feels he has been called by God to defend his people from the marauding Saxons.

"Our family seeks to inspire Christians to embrace God's purpose for their lives," says Chad Burns. Their film is being distributed in Family Christian Stores, and is also available to order online.

The trailer:

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