Hollywood ponders religious films after success of ‘The Passion’

Hollywood is rethinking films of faith after the overwhelming success of “The Passion of the Christ.” According to The New York Times, producers and studio executives are asking “whether the movie industry has been neglecting large segments of the American audience eager for more openly religious fare.”

For the third straight weekend, Mel Gibson’s dramatization of Christ’s final hours was the top film, taking in $31.7 million and pushing its total to $264 million in the United States and Canada, the Associated Press reported in mid-March. With support from a large number of churches whose members had bought blocks of tickets, “The Passion” is on track to gross between $350 million and $400 million.

The Times observed: “There is little doubt at the studios that the movie will affect decision making in the short and the long term. Some predict, as one result, a wave of New Testament-themed movies or more religious films in general.”

“Will there really be scriptural pictures — Old Testament, New Testament?” asked Peter Guber, a producer who formerly ran Sony Pictures Entertainment. “The answer seemingly is probably so.”

Disney recently announced plans to make a big-budget movie of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the beloved children’s book by C. S. Lewis, an influential Christian writer. The rights to make a movie of the book are owned by a production company owned by the media mogul Philip Anschutz, a Christian.

Mark Johnson, one of its producers, said the film would not be a Christian project per se. “We are intent on not making this into a Christian movie,” he said. “But it will be seen by many loyal readers as a very Christian movie.”

— Charisma News Service