Color of the Cross, the new film which asserts that Jesus was black, now has a theatrical release date. Anne Thompson has posted the press release at her Risky Biz Blog; here are some excerpts: Los Angeles, CA, August 23, 2006 – Nu-Lite Entertainment has announced plans to roll out its controversial new theatrical feature film Color of the Cross in select cities throughout the country beginning October 27, 2006. The company, in association with Rocky Mountain Pictures, will initially... Read more

You may have heard that the list of planets in our solar system grew by three last week. People of my generation are so used to thinking that there are nine planets in our solar system that it’s always a little weird to look back and realize that there was a time, only a few hundred years ago, when people believed there were only six — or five, if you lived long, long ago and did not consider Earth itself... Read more

The Vancouver International Film Festival will take place between September 28 and October 13 this year, and today they sent out their first press release. Among the highlights: Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver will play at the opening gala Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum will be on hand to introduce the North American premiere of Jacques Rivette’s 12.5-hour film Out 1: Noli Me Tangere (1971) Stan Douglas’s Klatsassin will concern British Columbian history and take place in five different eras; “Projected directly... Read more

Reuters reports that Joan of Arcadia creator Barbara Hall and former Disney studio chief Joe Roth are producing a dramatic pilot for CBS based on “the real-life experiences of Bob Larson, an expert on cults, the occult and supernatural phenomena.” Gadzooks. I guess it would be too much to hope that this show will be all about a guy who fakes exorcisms (or, alternatively, is regularly conned by people who only pretend to be possessed)? (Hat tip to Jeffrey Overstreet.) Read more

George Lucas talks to Empire magazine about Indiana Jones IV: “We’re basically going to do The Phantom Menace”, says Lucas (stay with him here, he’s making a point). “People’s expectations are way higher than you can deliver. You could just get killed for the whole thing…We would do it for fun and just take the hit with the critics and the fans…But nobody wants to get into it unless they are really happy with it”. I have to say, in... Read more

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. Bon Cop, Bad Cop — CDN $4,214,141 — N.AM $4,214,141 — 100%Miami Vice — CDN $6,817,487 — N.AM $59,786,000 — 11.4%Step Up — CDN $4,320,308 — N.AM $39,448,000 — 11.0%Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest — CDN $39,803,914 — N.AM $401,053,000 — 9.9%Snakes on a Plane — CDN $1,181,212... Read more

Another behind-the-scenes featurette is now up at the website for The Nativity Story. This one focuses on director Catherine Hardwicke, who talks about studying the Bible when she was a girl, about the need to make the movie as “real” or “authentic” as possible, and about the “epic intimacy” that her film will have. As with the first featurette, there are no major revelations here, though you can see more of the actors in their costumes — including Alexander Siddig... Read more

One year ago, I mentioned that Terrence Malick was reportedly developing a film to be shot in India with Colin Farrell, called Tree of Life. No other details were available, and the notoriously reclusive Malick did not attend last year’s press junket for The New World (2005), so we couldn’t ask him about this directly. Today, Jeffrey Overstreet stumbled across some bizarre rumours about this film — including the claim that Mel Gibson, who hasn’t starred in a movie since... Read more

Not the man, of course; he died ten years ago. But the Pacific Cinematheque and the Vancouver Int’l Film Centre will be hosting a series of his shorts, features and documentaries between September 1 and 27. The program will include nearly every film Kieslowski ever directed. The classic mini-series Dekalog (1988-1989) will screen at the VIFC September 8-13, and of the 39 other items listed at his IMDB filmography, all but four are listed in the Cinematheque’s program. It may... Read more

Amazing Grace, the historical film starring Ioan Gruffudd as abolitionist William Wilberforce and Albert Finney as hymnist John Newton, will premiere September 8 at the ‘Politics and Spirituality: Outer Witness, Inner Faith‘ conference in Pasadena. AUG 22 UPDATE: This film will also be screened at the closing gala for the Toronto International Film Festival, on September 16. Read more