Spiritual Makeover: The Passion of Fox

The Christian Booksellers Association's (CBA) annual conference, held last week in Denver, seems a strange venue for Stephen Baldwin to be promoting his new movie, yet there he was signing autographs after a mini sneak preview of his film, Midnight Clear. One might also not think CBA to be the occasion for a producer and celebrity laden 20th Century Fox party, but it was. Fox executives gathered a group of Christian retail managers, spiritual authors, and film and TV producers at Denver's picturesque Museum of Nature and Science and presented a comprehensive power point pitch on the museum's IMAX screen about the company's plan to "jump feet first" into the family based DVD market.

According to Director of Marketing Jeff Yordy, Fox wants to expand its dominance of the DVD market by becoming the number one provider of filmed entertainment content that "blends entertainment with positive messages." To this end, they're joining forces with Word Distribution, a Warner/Curb company who "creates, markets, and distributes recorded, print and video products for Christian entertainment and edification," to get their family friendly products into as many stores as possible.

It's no surprise that faith-based films have become a hot commodity with the huge success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (Fox released the DVD). Still, it might alarm some to learn that more and more films and TV shows are getting a Christian make-over. This summer's Because Of Winn Dixie underwent massive scrutiny at the hands of a Christian test audience in Nashville, one that recommended changes - which were followed - to make it more "family accessible". According to Fox, this was a major coup for the family film market, one that they hope to apply to more of their films.

In the same way that Rupert Murdoch apologized for Fight Club, the hosting Fox execs, which included President of Home Entertainment Mike Dunn, called the production company's mainstream offerings "racy" and consequently have provided a new website for those of us who wish to bypass the company's questionable content, FoxFaith.com.

According to Dunn the "faith based consumer is underserved" and represents a significant part of the 26.6 billion dollar DVD industry. If the opening of Joel Osteen's 16,000 capacity mega-church in Houston is any indication, the faith based market is also expanding exponentially. The Christian consumer's quest for "values driven entertainment" has prompted Fox to join forces with the media advocacy group The Dove Foundation to provide the growing number of Christian consumers with palatable, "innocent" entertainment. Now most people will agree that there is a lack of non-violent, swear-word-free family entertainment out there and I'm as much for kid-friendly movies as the next person, but something feels a little off when a major production company like Fox starts speaking religion.

The jubilantly cheery presentation of FoxFaith offerings claimed Dr. Doolittle (the 1967 version), The Sound Of Music as well as numerous other classics among their "safe and reliable" entertainment, but that's not all. Perennial childhood favorite, Strawberry Shortcake has also undergone an extreme makeover to gain points on, what some in the CBA industry have called, the Christ-o-meter. Fox is working to overhaul the pink pastry puff by giving her a religious spin, if purchased from a faith based store such as Parable, Strawberry's DVDs come with a Bible study packet, something that the executives at Fox, the studio that distributes Strawberry, hopes to include with more of their faith based DVDs. Strawberry is also working exclusively with Fox on an overtly faith based Christmas movie.

The studio also hopes to bring the 13 "values-driven" movies currently in development to as many theatre screens as possible next year. To this aim they have developed relationships with born again stars like Judge Reinhold (Fast Times At Richmond High), who is working on a film with his wife for Fox and production team Michael Landon Jr. and Brian Bird who have optioned works by Christian author Francine Rivers (for those of you not up on your Christian authors, Rivers sports a consistent presence on the CBA bestseller list).

From a financial point of view no one can blame Fox for wanting to cash in on a growing market of movie watchers by catering to their faith based demands, but to listen to Dunn speak, you'd think there was more to it than that. On the one hand, Dunn claims there are "Christian movies made by Christians for Christians" like the Hallmark channel's. On the other, there is what Dunn refers to, appropriately enough, "sheep in wolf's clothing," films like Winn-Dixie, targeted to appeal to audiences of all religious backgrounds, good entertainment says Dunn, with "solid, generic, Christian values."

Even though most of these values driven titles make their debut on TV, with networks like Lifetime, Hallmark or ABC Family, some of these movies have made a splash on the big screen. The wholesome Ociee Nash was shown on 79 screens in 62 cities. Sure that's nothing compared to the saturated release of War Of The Worlds on 3,910 screens, but it's a start. Most in the CBA community hope that the 2006 release of The End Of The Spear (Jim Hanon), the fictionalized retelling (the documentary on the same subject by Hanon, Beyond The Gates Of Splendor, was released earlier this year) of the deaths of five missionaries in the jungles of Ecuador, will capture a wide theatrical audience. And as expected, with the booming demand for movies with positive Christian messages increases, the inde-Christian market is also surfacing. Thanks to the whirlwind success of authors like Jerry Jenkins (The Left Behind Series), money is abundant for independent authors cum producers. The indie-industry is taking off with films like the Jenkins produced (and Dallas Jenkins directed), and previously mentioned, Midnight Clear starring Stephen Baldwin, who has openly talked about his being saved on Howard Stern.

Still the Christian movie market has some challenges ahead on its road to box office domination. During the post-presentation mingling, as authors like Ted Dekker (Three) got ready to sign books and roaches from the Christian based cartoon The Roach Approach prepared for photo ops, I asked one producer if, The Passion aside, he foresaw Christian movies getting nationwide feature release and competing with mainstream films in the box-offices any time soon. He answered candidly that, although he thought many faith-based films possessed quality material, he felt there was a rift between the talent that is attracted to star in these films as well as the budgets the films are allotted. It's true that some of the previews for upcoming releases seemed burdened with poor acting, but with companies like Fox taking an active interest in faith-based entertainment it looks like the money is starting to pour in. And where there's a will, there's a way.