TrekWeb.com is reporting that George Takei did an interview in the newest issue of Starburst in which he revealed that he will be in the new Star Trek movie — presumably as Captain Sulu, who was last seen in a flashback episode of Star Trek: Voyager (1996) that took place during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991; my comments), but who knows. And yes, he will reportedly share a scene with Leonard Nimoy. If Takei is... Read more
For the past few months, I have been asking certain Christian movie publicists if New Line Cinema would be making any effort to reach out to the religious market, to dampen the controversy over The Golden Compass. I have been on a few New Line junkets myself — for films like The New World (2005) and The Nativity Story (2006) — and last year another studio, Sony Pictures, made a point of “engaging” the religious media while publicizing the similarly... Read more
Rotten Tomatoes recently visited the set of Franklyn, a quasi-futuristic flick I’ve mentioned here a couple times before, and they spoke to its director, Gerald McMorrow: “Franklyn is basically about four intertwining stories, three of which are based in contemporary London and one of which is based in a kind of parallel fantasy environment called Meanwhile City,” he says (and this is where it gets confusing) “Our hero in that strand is this sort-of masked vigilante detective who’s the only... Read more
LAST YEAR, many Christians went out of their way to caution their fellow believers against over-reacting to the movie version of The Da Vinci Code. Yes, the film put forth a deeply problematic view of Jesus and church history, but instead of protesting against it, Christians were encouraged to see it, discuss it with their friends and, in general, “engage” with it as part of their broader engagement with the culture. This year, however, many Christians have begun to raise... Read more
My op-ed piece on the controversy over The Golden Compass and the His Dark Materials trilogy as a whole is now up at BC Christian News. Read more
However much I might disagree with Philip Pullman’s beliefs and his characterization of Christianity in the His Dark Materials trilogy, it must be said that Pullman very graciously agreed to exchange several e-mails with me back in September, for my article on The Golden Compass that appears in the current issue of Christianity Today. Only a fraction of this “interview” ended up in the article itself, but a lot of what he said was quite interesting, so I figured I’d... Read more
Not only have I not heard of any screenings for Awake, a colleague informs me that he was told there wouldn’t be any screenings for Awake. (I’ve been too busy lately to go out of my way to inquire about, let alone attend, any screenings myself.) The film stars Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba, and it’s being released the weekend after the American Thanksgiving, which has traditionally been something of a dumping ground. Read more
Here’s a fascinating excerpt from John August’s blog: Two guys walking with us today didn’t need many introductions: Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams. . . . Damon is producing the new Star Trek movie, which J.J. is directing. Which is shooting on the Paramount lot. Which we are currently picketing. This combination of facts led me to email Damon yesterday, which led to a phone call, which led to us walking in circles at the Van Ness gate along with... Read more
They’re at it again: The director and co-stars of The Golden Compass have told the Globe and Mail that their film is not “anti-religious”, even though, in the book at least, all the religious characters are evil and, in the sequels, God himself is depicted as a lying, decrepit angel who needs to be killed. Daniel Craig is quoted as saying, “These books are not anti-religious. I think that mainly they’re anti-misuse of power – whether it’s religious or political.”... Read more
My article on the controversy over The Golden Compass and the His Dark Materials trilogy as a whole is now up at Christianity Today. The magazine has a fairly long lead time — at least compared to the websites and newspapers that I write for! — so this article does not take some of the more recent developments into account. I also “interviewed” Philip Pullman by e-mail for this story, but only a handful of quotes ended up in the... Read more
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