In the natural progression of all things evil there will now be a Christian division to News Corp Fox Filmed Entertainment. The blessed people over at latimes.com give us this:
In the biggest commitment of its sort by a Hollywood studio, News Corp.’s Fox Filmed Entertainment is expected to unveil plans today to capture the gargantuan Christian audience that made “The Passion of the Christ” a global phenomenon. The home entertainment division of Rupert Murdoch’s movie studio plans to produce as many as a dozen films a year under a banner called FoxFaith. At least six of those films will be released in theaters under an agreement with two of the nation’s largest chains, AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas. “A segment of the market is starving for this type of content,” said Simon Swart, general manager of Fox’s U.S. home entertainment unit.
Ok now I know this is going to get people on both sides of Christianity talking. Like John I once was a religious person and now I am not. My first reaction to this article was outrage, from my now unreligious state and also from my past Christian morals.
But this isn’t personal, Fox is a business, and as a business Fox just wants to make money. Being smart it recognizes that the Christian market is one that is once again growing.
I’m curious to see if Christians will balk at the idea of Fox getting cash for Christ, or if they will be happy to have their demographic more represented and provided for in films.
Would I pay to see a Christian based movie? It depends. What is a Christian movie according to Fox? If it’s a well directed story driven film with known actors that maybe has less violence and more focus on being a good person, yes I’d probably go see it. I like movies that bring religious factors up for debate; What Dreams May Come, The Truman Show and The Matrix all got me thinking about if there is a big man (or woman) up in the sky. But if these are going to be conservative Christian propaganda films well I’m not interested.
Even though in theory it is a good move to make Christian movies I actually wonder if Fox will succeed. With all of the varying degrees of values in churches today it will be a fine line between whether these movies are too Christian or not Christian enough.
