The Second Chance, written and directed by Steve Taylor and starring Michael W. Smith and jeff obafemi carr, comes out on DVD this coming Tuesday, and I recently acquired a review copy of the disc. Watching the movie for the first time in five months, I was impressed anew by how much more “authentic” it looks and feels than most “Christian” movies — thanks to the gritty street-level realism and the hand-held cameras, etc. — and I think I may... Read more

The Hollywood Reporter (via Reuters) reports: Jamie Foxx is producing and may star in “The Power of Duff,” a drama that has been a hot property at Universal. The project follows a Rochester, N.Y., TV news anchor who after the death of his father begins praying aloud for things to happen while reading the evening news. When his prayers start coming true, it ignites controversy about whether he’s a prophet, a pundit or a charlatan. Universal won Stephen Belber‘s script... Read more

This has to be one of the funniest things I have seen since Thank You for Smoking. The Hollywood Reporter (via Reuters) says anti-smoking activists are turning their sights on Hollywood — and making one of the loopiest demands I have ever heard: Anti-tobacco activists worldwide plan to march Thursday from the Washington Convention Center to Motion Picture Association of America headquarters and call on the MPAA to take action to reduce smoking in the movies, including requiring an R... Read more

It is not uncommon to see multiple actors play the same character, a la James Bond, and it is not uncommon to see an actor reprise his role in sequels and the like. But Peter O’Toole’s performance as King Henry II of England in Becket (1964), and then again in The Lion in Winter (1968), is of a whole different calibre. The latter film is not a sequel to the former, even though it takes place some years later and... Read more

Well, we all suspected something like this would happen, but now it looks like it’s official. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) is going to get the four-disc extended-edition treatment that has already been accorded to Pearl Harbor (2001), The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Reports UltimateDisney.com: Earlier this week, UD broke news that couldn’t be found anywhere else online, that Disney/Walden’s blockbuster fantasy adaptation The Chronicles of Narnia:... 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. Le Secret de Ma Mere — CDN $148,532 — N.AM $148,532 — 100%The Da Vinci Code — CDN $26,330,219 — N.AM $213,289,000 — 12.3%The Break-Up — CDN $9,902,413 — N.AM $114,304,000 — 8.7%The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift — CDN $4,957,356 — N.AM $57,369,000 — 8.6%Click — CDN $8,702,968... Read more

My article on the horror films of Val Lewton (Cat People, etc.) — and on Alexander Nemerov’s book Icons of Grief: Val Lewton’s Home Front Pictures — is now up at Books & Culture. Read more

New Testament scholar Mark Goodacre noted at his blog last Friday that he has been “engaged as a consultant” on an upcoming British mini-series called The Passion. To quote The Stage: Frank Deasy, one of the writers of Prime Suspect, will pen the BBC’s new £4 million drama The Passion, which is understood to be scheduled for 2008. The mini-series will follow the week leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Producer Nigel-Stafford Clark, who recently worked on... Read more

C.R.A.Z.Y., last year’s top-grossing Canadian film and the winner of a whopping 11 Genie Awards, is a French-language film. And now it is playing in France, a country where, I am told, they speak French rather fluently. But, as the IMDB’s trivia page puts it: Even though the movie’s dialogue was in French, for the theatrical release in France, subtitles were added for viewers who cannot understand Québécois French. Or, to quote a message I got from an e-pal yesterday:... Read more

CleanFlicks — a company that edits DVDs to remove what they consider gratuitous language, sex and violence — has been hit by a number of lawsuits over the years. Last year, this family-friendly company was even sued by Mel Gibson for cutting three minutes out of The Passion of the Christ. Now, the Associated Press reports that they lost one of those lawsuits — and they lost it big: Sanitizing movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws,... Read more