A BLOG FOR WRITERS Novelist, television scribe and esteemed Act One faculty member, Karen Hall, has started a blog on writing. She has begun by talking about the importance of writing from a credo. Check it out. Read more

FROM THEOLOGIAN, MARTIN SCORSESE In today’s Hollywood Reporter, director Martin Scorsese is asked if he anticipated the controversy that surrounded The Last Temptation of Christ. Scorsese: No, I didn’t expect that. I knew there would be some people who would be upset, but this was a theme we discussed very often in high school – the idea of Jesus being fully human, and what does that mean? If he was only divine, then Jesus’ dying on the cross and getting... Read more

A SAD DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD “The whole idea is to look at the television camera and present as much love as you possibly could to a person who might feel that he or she needs it.” (Fred Rogers in CNN Interview) I had the opportunity to meet Fred Rogers two years ago. He was accepting a lifetime achievement award from the Christophers. His comments and bearing very much impressed me. Simple. Profound. Principled. He seemed to me to be... Read more

MORE GOOD NEWS FOR THE FUTURE I’ve been brooding over the reality TV excesses lately, trying to figure out how we, as a culture, got where we are, and where we might be headed. I found this quote on Bizarre Science, which didn’t make me feel better, except that it started me brooding over where we can go start a new country… This memorable quotation is from Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813). Scottish jurist and historian, he was widely known... Read more

BECAUSE, YOU SEE, IN HOLLYWOOD, THE MESSIAH HASN’T COME YET Daily Variety reports yesterday that two big animation houses (Visionbox Prods. and X-42 Prods.) are partnering on a 3-D animated flick called, The Chosen One. Story is about an average Joe who is revealed to be “the Messiah,” (Variety’s words, not mine) and has to make a pilgrimage to Kansas to receive/deliver a message from God, in order to “save a rapidly disintegrating civilization.” Well, the greenlighting of this film... Read more

TO END ALL WARS Last night, I (with about 350 other Hollywood Christians) attended an Inter-Mission screening of the much anticipated To End All Wars. “Much anticipated” by Christians in the industry, anyway, because its creators have been everywhere saying that their film would be “gritty and real” and, by implication, much closer to what Christians should be making than Left Behind, or The Omega Code. To End All Wars is certainly in a completely different category from the apocalyptic... Read more

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE Gods and Generals posted a respectable 8th place for its opening weekend. It took in around $5,000,0000. This is significant because the film can only get one show a night compared to two or three for some of its competitors. More good news… the dreadful and vile Daredevil tanked in its second weekend. From Boxoffice magazine online: In a disastrous fall from its $45 million take just a weekend ago, “Spider-Man” wannabe “Daredevil” plummeted far beyond the... Read more

MORE GODS AND GENERALS Catholic Exchange is running my review of Gods and Generals. Rod Dreher agrees. Read more

“JOE MILLIONAIRE: FORTY MILLION VIEWERS CAN’T BE WRONG” (The Hollywood Reporter) “WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF AGREEING WITH THE MAJORITY, IT’S TIME TO REFORM.” (Mark Twain) Once, when Jesus was particularly dismayed by the obtuseness of his apostles, he cried out, “Can you not read the signs of the times?” The cry echoes down through the ages as a challenge for every subsequent generation of disciples to keep their fingers in the air and their spirits alert. The “Signs of the... Read more

DARE TO SKIP DAREDEVIL Note from Barbara: I have invited some of our Act One alumns to submit guest reviews. Primarily, so I can avoid having to see movies like Daredevil. Here is one written by Sean Domoachowski, Act One Chicago ’02. Thanks Sean! ) I wanted to like this movie. The last three movies I have seen were utterly dreadful, and I was hoping I would be transported and invigorated by a good, reliable comic book movie. Alas, such... Read more