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PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Wednesday 16 March 2016
New faith-based films tone down religion, amp up star power
SANDY COHEN School of Theater, Film and such big names haven’t
Television. traditionally been drawn
AP Entertainment Writer “It’s a label, but it’s not to the quieter God-related
magical. It doesn’t guaran- fare.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — For tee box-office turnout,” she Garner, who plays Christy
said, citing Paramount’s Beam in “Miracles From
some filmgoers, hearing a 2014 big-budget Biblical Heaven,” celebrated the
flop, “Noah.” film’s Christian themes.
movie described as “faith- “Audiences flock to well- “I wasn’t scared of doing a
made films that deal with movie that had faith at its
based” makes it a must- stories of optimism and re- center, as long as it wasn’t
newal, even if there is suf- preachy,” Garner told The
see. But just as many others fering and there is loss,” she Associated Press. “And do-
said. “That was true in clas- ing this movie, part of that
find the term a turn-off. sic Hollywood cinema and is talking about something
it’s true today.” that I’ve always held dear
To reach audiences be- Hollywood has a long his- and close to my heart... I’m
tory of Biblical blockbust- proud of growing up a little
yond the Christian church- ers, from Cecil B. DeMille’s good churchgoing United
“The Ten Commandments” Methodist girl and I’m so,
goers that generally propel to Mel Gibson’s “The Pas- so proud of the film.”
sion of the Christ” to the Director Patricia Riggen
the genre, some produc- currently playing “Risen,” (“The 33”) said she didn’t
also released by Affirm and approach the film from a
ers of faith-based films are starring Joseph Feinnes. But religious perspective.q
ramping up the star power
and tamping down the
evangelical messages.
The latest example is “Mir-
acles From Heaven,” star-
ring Jennifer Garner and
Queen Latifah, which tells
the true story of a 9-year-
old Texas girl who inexpli- This image released by Sony Pictures shows, from left, Jennifer
Garner, Martin Henderson and Kelly Collins Lintz in a scene from
cably recovers from an Columbia Pictures’ “Miracles from Heaven.”
incurable condition after Associated Press
surviving a 30-foot fall. order, then has a poten-
tially deadly fall. But fol-
Among the film’s produc- lowing the mishap, Anna
has no serious injuries and
ers are pastors T.D. Jakes ultimately shows no signs
of the disorder. She later
and DeVon Franklin — the tells her mom she went to
heaven and talked to Je-
team behind 2014’s $100 sus during the ordeal.
The film is being released
million hit “Heaven is for Wednesday by Sony’s Af-
firm Films, the studio’s spe-
Real” — who say they aim cialty faith division estab-
lished in 2007.
to make movies for all au- Affirm also released “Heav-
en is for Real,” starring
diences, not just religious Greg Kinnear, which is simi-
larly based on a parent’s
ones. account of a child’s divine
experience. The film had a
“I think sometimes when reported $12 million bud-
get and made more than
people hear ‘faith-based,’ $100 million at the box of-
fice.
to them that is code for Paramount’s “Captive,”
released last fall, was a
preachy, that is code for modest faith-based suc-
cess. Also a true story, it
more medicine, and it’s stars David Oyelowo as
Brian Nichols, an escaped
also sometimes code for murderer who takes a sin-
gle mother (Kate Mara)
lower quality, lower bud- hostage, then lets her go
after she reads a Christian
geted,” Franklin said in a book to him. Despite mixed
reviews, it more than dou-
recent interview. bled its small budget at the
box office.
“It’s the way people think Marketing a film as faith-
based means nothing if
when you use labels that the content doesn’t speak
to religious audiences, said
is the barrier,” Jakes said. Maria Elena de Las Carre-
ras, a professor of interna-
“It’s not necessarily the film, tional cinema at the UCLA
but the image that comes
up in people’s minds ... It
suggests a discrimination
that was not intended. We
didn’t do this film just for
people of faith. We did this
film for everybody.”
Other entertain-
ment aimed at Christian
audiences, including new
films “The Young Messiah”
and “God’s Not Dead 2,”
and the live TV special
“The Passion” (airing Sun-
day), take a more religious
approach.
“Miracles From Heaven” is
based on Christy Beam’s
2015 memoir, which de-
scribes her family’s strug-
gles and her own crisis
of faith when daughter
Anna is diagnosed with
an incurable digestive dis-
