I Am

Writer-Director Matt Russel, who has worked on visual effects for Live Free or Die Hard, Night at the Museum, Charlotte's Web, Final Destination 3, Zathura and Blade Trinity, is finishing work on a Christian film entitled I am.

Russel describes the film as similar to Crash, about a successful businessman who decides to run for governor and then finds his life taking a turn for the worse.

Russell and Producer Jess Stainbrook screened some clips of the film at this years Sundance Film Festival, and they say that they hope that their film will appeal to non-Christians as well as Christians.

This could be a good film, but it actually sounds a lot like The Ultimate Gift to me. Rich guy goes through hard times, find Jesus. Wash, rinse, repeat.

(original story from Yourhub.com, linked to by Christian Manifesto)
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Summer Grove Baptist Church $60 Million film deal

Seems that Sherwood Baptist Church, the home of the Kendrick Bros. and Sherwood Pictures, doesn't have the monopoly on movie producing Churches anymore.

Summer Grove Baptist Church in Shreveport, LA(hey! I was there just a few months back!) is considering selling some of their property to a film studio that would partner with the church and produce family films with a Christian message.

It seems that the Church bought an entire shopping mall a few years back, and after turning J.C. Penny's into a worship building they have been leasing out other parts of the mall. According to KTBS, the church "is considering a proposal by the Louisiana Film Institute and Fountain Bridge Studios to buy part of the mall. It's talking about paying the church approximately $2 million a year over 30 years."

$60 million is a substantial chunk of change. I'm sure this is all part of the state of Louisiana's film incentives, which are said to be rivaling my home state of New Mexico's. We recently had a $200 millon+ film studio built here, and Gerad Butler as just in town filming some awful sounding movie.

Anyway, this isn't nearly as home grown as the Kendrick boys and Sherwood, but it is another church getting into the film game, big time.

The church votes on this on Sunday, so we'll see if it goes through.

(story from KTBS.com)
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The Heartwood Dagger

Want to see a new Christian movie for free?

The Heartwood Dagger, a new film from Filmweavers, the makers of Clocks(which I've never heard of), who apparently had some of their crew members (DP & AD) work on another film we recently reported, Pendragon: Sword of His Father.

In keeping with the cutlery theme, this film is about a dagger that is passed down by the men of a family. It is passed through many generations, until one man fails to give it to his son. Now, years later, he has returned to find his son and his grandson conflicting. Can he finally pass on the family legacy and heal their relationship?

You can find out, for free! The film is having its world premiere this Saturday on TBN. It is at 4PM PST. Now, if you're like me and don't have cable TV, don't fret. Did you know you can watch TBN live streaming online? Just go to TBN.org and click the link at the top "Watch Us."

I know that, Lord willing, I'll be logging on this weekend to check it out. If I can convice Don to as well, we might just review this for our next episode.

You can watch the trailer at Filmweavers.com. Check it out!

Thanks to the Fond du Lac Reporter for pointing us to this movie with a great little story!



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Misconceptions

Another week started, another new Christian movie on the horizon!

Misconceptions, directed by Ron Satlof(Academy Award nominated for 1972's short film Frog Story, and a director of a ton of Perry Mason related stuff, as well as the only good episode of Galactica 1980), is the story of a evangelical Christian who becomes the surrogate mother to a gay couple. Apparently the mother, from Atlanta, gets a directive from God to become the surrogate mother for the gay couple from Boston.

Sounds ok. But throw in Orlando Jones, most likely cast as the flamboyant gay man, and I'm in for comedy gold!

Ok, I'm not really sure if this is even what we here at SuperCandid consider a Christian movie, but any movie news involing Orlando Jones is news worthy, IMO.

(Tampa Tribune)

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SuperCandid Podcast #21 - Amazing Grace

We all know how slavery ended in the good ol' US and A. Lots and lots of killing was required to convince people that all men are created equal, and even now we might not be completly over the whole thing.

What about jolly old England? They helped, along with the Spanish, start African Slavery in the Americas, but they ended slavery quite a while before we got around to it. Who was their Abraham Lincoln?

Would you believe, William Wilberforce? Who? You never heard of him either? Well, this is your lucky day sir, because the movie Amazing Grace, directed by British auter Michael Apted(Rome, The World is Not Enough, Up Series, Nell, Gorillas in the Mist, The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader[forthcoming]) has a history lesson for you. Starring Ioan Grufford(Fantastic Four, King Arthur, Horatio Hornblower) as Wilberforce, the movie has a fantastic cast of British character actors, including the great Albert Finney as John Newton, the former slave ship capatin who wrote the title poem/song.

How is this a Christian film? Wilberforce's main allies were Christian anti-slavery crusaders, and Wilberforce himself was moved by his own journey of faith to continue the difficult political struggle.

Tune into the SuperCandid Podcast to see what we thought of the film, which was a big hit at the US Box Office and is just recently out on DVD.

Direct Download

SHOW NOTES:

Video I(don) stole the intro music from.

The absurdisty humor of Lasagna Cat

All that remains of the brilliant Garfield minus Garfield.

You can find details on the Expelled ticket stubs for donations program at the official website (thanks to Laelaps for the link)

And, just for completionism, some info on Expelled.

The news story about the public high school that got in trouble for screening Facing the Giants.



Intro:


Outro:




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Jesus, the Spirit of God

Here's a film that a lot of other websites are already up in arms about.

Jesus, The Spirit of God, is an Iranian film about the Islamic version of the life of Christ. Partly funded by Iranian State Broadcasting, the film follows the Gospels for the most part, the divergers when, as recounted in the Koran, (SPOILER WARNING) God saves Jesus from the Cross and He ascends straight to Heaven.

I just listened to a podcast the other day discussing the Islamic view of Jesus. The theory on the podcast was that Muhammed was familiar only with the Gnostic Gospels that were popular in Arabia at the time. This would explain the way that Muhammed felt the Jesus could be integrated with the Koran.

A lot of people are upset about this film, and I can't say that I'm happy with it's theology, but it does raise an interesting point.

How do you think Jewish people feel when there are Christian movies made about Moses, Abraham and David?



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Me & You, Us, Forever

A Christian movie is sneaking up on us fast!

Coming to Theatres nationwide on February 15, Me & You, Us, Forever.  

The plot of the movie is described on the poster, with one twist that is not mentioned in the marketing but is all over the publicity.  The guy just got divorced, and that is the event that makes him seek out his high school girlfriend.  

The Christian Post and Christian Newswire both have stories about the film reaching out to divorced Christians.  A serious problem in churches, one that the upcoming Fireproof is also dealing with.  

On the official website you can watch the trailer, and it looks like nothing special.  It seems quite sentimental and sappy, but the story of looking up old sweathearts has a lot of potential.  

Hey, maybe this will be a Christian version of High Fidelity!  That would be awesome!  

I hope that this movie takes the issues seriously without dipping to far into pandering to Christian audiences.  The premise has a lot of potential, a sort of tear-jerker with a angle at the men in the audience.  

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Buddy Guard

When we talk about bad Christian movies, they often start by taking a bad idea and tacking the "Christian" onto it, adding insult to injury as it were.

Recently we've seen more and more Christian movies that have great ideas and work hard to make something that anyone would want to see in theatres. There have been Christian movies of the past two years that have entertained non-Christian and Christians alike. We've seen movies that entertain and challenge Christians, movies that make you think about your faith and your relationship with God.

This, sadly, is a step back for the industry as a whole.

"Buddy Guard is a Christian-based movie in which bodyguard Steven Rike (played by Clevenger) is hired by a U.S. senator to watch over Buddy McKenney (St. Charles, Mo., actor Eric Barfield-Vox), a man with limited mental capacities, after an assassination attempt." - The Quad City Times

Described as an action adventure and a buddy-comedy, the news article says that many comedic moments stem from the 1-foot height difference between the characters. It goes on to say that the child-like faith of the "Buddy" character helps the bodyguard get over his own past.

So, it's Twins, if Danny Devito was a badass bodyguard and Arnold was an stereotyped mentally disabled giant.

I love to support independent productions, and even more independent Christian productions, but this movie is crippled from the start with a terrible idea. In order to get people into theatres you have to be able to hook them before they see your movie. Perhaps this movie will be good, even great. A bad idea can often be salvaged by creative people working on the film. But a premise like this, that reeks of sentimentality and schmaltz, is never going to get people into the theatre in the first place.

I should qualify that. The people who go to see this movie are going to be very similar to the filmmakers. Christian families looking for something "safe" to watch. Hopefully they will be entertained and have a good time. But for those of us who want something more than just a "safe" movie, well, I doubt many will pay for a ticket to something like this. I hope we can review this someday, just so that I can see it for myself.


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Pendragon: Sword of His Father

The Chronicles of the Willi, apparently some sort of family blog, linked to the trailer for an interesting Christian movie a couple days ago.

Pendragon: Sword of His Father is an indendpendantly produced Christian medieval action/adventure, about young Artos Pendragon(get it?) who has to take up his father's sword (got it yet?) and fight the evil Saxon invaders in 5th Century Britannia(England). Do you get the idea yet? Don asked me if at some point an old man turns him into a fish. I can only hope, but regardless the movie looks interesting and exciting!

At the home page of Burns Family Studios you can see some photos from the film, learn about its produciton, and even sponser a character(for only $1000). The film is being supported largly through independant donations, although it looks as if it is nearly finished at this point.

Sure, it looks to have production values on about the same scale as Xena: Warrior Princess, but that is saying a lot for an independant production, and honestly I'm really looking forward to seeing what Christians can do when they set their mind to making a genre film. Is anyone else tired of every Christian movie being a character drama? We need more swords, knights and horses. Actually, strike that last one as horses are present in almost all of those awful 19th Century romances that are made based on Christian novels. So, no more horses but defiantly more flaming arrows!

This honestly looks to have a better story than the recent Hollywood hack-job, In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Again, not saying a lot but a very, very refreshing change of pace for the indenpendant Christian film world. I am really looking forward to this one with high hopes!

Watch the trailer now!




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Veggie Tales: The Pirates who Don't Do Anything

Today is the opening day of VeggieTales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Not really my cup of tea, and certainly not something I'm going to pay full price to see with just the wife, but it is almost certainly going to be a good time for young kids. Ahh, Veggie Tales, you've come a long way, for good or ill, from telling Bible stories on VHS tapes in the Christian bookstore. A roundup of recent stories about the new Veggie Tales movie: An interesting overview of the marketing behind the movie from moviemarketingmadness.com. The Tenessean reports and the studio's newfound desire to seek Christian audiences. Vischer also mentions in this article that he had mortgaged his house to make the first VeggieTales movie. It might sound a bit crazy, but I just learned today that Walt Disney had to mortgage his house to make Snow White. So sometimes it works out, I guess. Apparently, Catholic Online got a screener of the film when almost no other movie review site did. They liked it. Nashville Scene has an interview with Mike Nawrocki, director of The Pirates who don't Do Anything and voice of Larry the Cucumber. WKRN has a bit about the movie premiere, and they may be the only news article that notes the continued diminished role of Bob the Tomato. Christianity Today has a nice interview with Phil Vischer, talking about how preaching at people is not a good way to get them to see your movie. Truthwar blog points out a good point in the CT interview that Vischer makes about current Christian market's being a lot less tolerant of allegory and metaphor. Aslan might not make the cut today, and Narnia might be banned outright for promoting magic. If any of our readers see the film, be sure to drop us a line and let us know! Save This Page