{"id":1296,"date":"2007-10-11T09:36:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-11T09:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/lars-and-the-real-girl-marketing-to-churches\/"},"modified":"2007-10-11T09:36:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-11T09:36:00","slug":"lars-and-the-real-girl-marketing-to-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/lars-and-the-real-girl-marketing-to-churches.html","title":{"rendered":"Lars and the Real Girl — marketing to churches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Hollywood Reporter<\/i>, via Reuters<\/a>, has caught on to the fact that Lars and the Real Girl<\/a><\/i> \u2014 the movie starring Ryan Gosling and a blow-up doll \u2014 is being marketed to church groups:<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you market a wholesome, old-fashioned film about a churchgoer who falls in love with his sex doll? Grass-roots screenings with religious groups, maybe?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the novel approaches being taken with the marketing campaign for director Craig Gillespie\u2019s unexpectedly poignant comedy \u201cLars and the Real Girl,\u201d which opens Friday in Los Angeles and New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf Nelson\u201d Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling plays Lars, a painfully shy loner who lives in the garage next to his brother and sister-in-law\u2019s house. Crushed by the loss of his parents, he orders a lifelike doll named Bianca over the Web and convinces himself that she\u2019s his girlfriend. The local doctor (Patricia Clarkson) persuades his family, his small town and even his church to help him by going along with the delusion and accept Bianca as a real person.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing really prurient in the film, which earned a mild PG-13 rating for \u201csome sex-related content.\u201d Lars and Bianca sleep in separate houses. There\u2019s a discreet scene in which Bianca\u2019s potential in-laws bathe her, but while some silicone is exposed, her anatomical correctness is never shown.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s producer, Sidney Kimmell Entertainment (SKE), plans more than 100 promo screenings by the time the film goes wide on October 26 including, yes, outreach to church leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve found an enormous response from mainstream Christian groups,\u201d says Bingham Ray, who heads up SKE\u2019s distribution operations. \u201cSome pastors may discuss the film as part of their sermons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trailer doesn\u2019t intentionally misrepresent the film\u2019s tone, but it does feature Bianca in ridiculous situations (holding a baby, sitting in church), making it tough to convey the film\u2019s themes of acceptance, tolerance and kindness. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The Hollywood Reporter, via Reuters, has caught on to the fact that Lars and the Real Girl \u2014 the movie starring Ryan Gosling and a blow-up doll \u2014 is being marketed to church groups: How do you market a wholesome, old-fashioned film about a churchgoer who falls in love with his sex doll? Grass-roots screenings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLars and the Real Girl -- marketing to churches<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Hollywood Reporter, via Reuters, has caught on to the fact that Lars and the Real Girl -- the movie starring Ryan Gosling and a blow-up doll -- is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/lars-and-the-real-girl-marketing-to-churches.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lars and the Real Girl -- marketing to churches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hollywood Reporter, via Reuters, has caught on to the fact that Lars and the Real Girl -- the movie starring Ryan Gosling and a blow-up doll -- is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/lars-and-the-real-girl-marketing-to-churches.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-11T09:36:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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