{"id":1390,"date":"2007-08-25T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/08\/is-the-fox-faith-label-the-kiss-of-death\/"},"modified":"2007-08-25T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-25T13:00:00","slug":"is-the-fox-faith-label-the-kiss-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/08\/is-the-fox-faith-label-the-kiss-of-death.html","title":{"rendered":"Is the Fox Faith label the kiss of death?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Terry Mattingly\u2019s latest column<\/a> for the Scripps Howard News Service looks at what happened to The Ultimate Gift<\/a><\/i>, which came to theatres back in March and is now out on DVD<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

There were other reviews, good and bad. Still, the nastiness in strategic corners of the media caught veteran producer Rick Eldridge off guard, in large part because he thought that he was producing a mainstream movie, with mainstream talent, that was going to have a chance to reach a thoroughly mainstream audience.<\/p>\n

What he didn\u2019t count on was getting stuck with two dangerous labels \u2014 \u201cFox\u201d and \u201cFaith.\u201d Those words can turn your average media insider into a pillar of salt.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened to \u201cThe Ultimate Gift,\u201d turning this quiet cinematic fable into a cautionary tale for others who want to make movies that can appeal to viewers in Middle America, including folks who frequent sanctuary pews.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really felt this story had strong values that would hit home with the general market,\u201d said Eldridge, who is now pushing to promote the DVD of his movie. \u201cI thought this was a moral-message film, but I was determined to make a movie that would speak to a wide spectrum of people. \u2026 Then we got pigeon-holed into this little \u2018Christian\u2019 niche that really limited who would get much of a chance to see this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pivotal moment was when this 20th Century Fox project was moved to the new Fox Faith division, which meant \u201cThe Ultimate Gift\u201d was sent to theaters with all kinds of faith-based strings attached. As the Fox Faith Web site bluntly stated<\/a>: \u201cTo be part of Fox Faith, a movie has to have overt Christian content or be derived from the work of a Christian author.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, mainstream critics were determined to find the moral messages and make sure potential moviegoers were warned in advance. This also meant that mainstream performers such as Academy Award nominee James Garner, veteran character actor Brian Dennehy and the young actress Abigail Breslin of \u201cLittle Miss Sunshine\u201d discovered that they were \u2014 surprise, surprise \u2014 starring in a \u201cChristian movie.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n

There is no need to deny that the movie contains religious and moral themes, said Eldridge. But for generations, Hollywood executives made successful mainstream movies that contained these kinds of words and images. These movies were aimed at a broad, mainstream market, not a narrow, political, sectarian, \u201cChristian\u201d niche.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the Fox people this movie was going to resonate with the Christian audience and that\u2019s fine with me, because I am a Christian,\u201d said Eldridge. \u201cBut I was worried that this movie would get tagged as a little \u2018Christian\u2019 movie, like that was some kind of Good Housekeeping seal for the Christian marketplace. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s obvious that this is what happened and that caused some people to distance themselves from this movie. There was no need for that to happen.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, Fox Faith Movies has not released any new movies theatrically since The Ultimate Gift<\/i>. The website<\/a> still lists two movies as \u201ccoming soon\u201d, but one of them<\/a> recently went straight to TV, while the other one<\/a> was originally scheduled for an Easter release and has since been put on indefinite hold.<\/p>\n

In fairness, it is not only Fox Faith that has had to deal with the problem of turning away audiences simply because they target the Christian niche. Recent box-office disappointments such as New Line\u2019s The Nativity Story<\/a><\/i> (2006) and Universal\u2019s Evan Almighty<\/a><\/i> also quite possibly turned away as many people as they might have attracted, precisely because it was perceived that those films were catering to the churchgoing crowd. More and more, it makes sense that the makers of The Chronicles of Narnia<\/a><\/i> (2005) made a point of downplaying<\/i> their own film\u2019s Christian connections.<\/p>\n

AUG 26 UPDATE: Mattingly\u2019s column is now archived here<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terry Mattingly\u2019s latest column for the Scripps Howard News Service looks at what happened to The Ultimate Gift, which came to theatres back in March and is now out on DVD: There were other reviews, good and bad. Still, the nastiness in strategic corners of the media caught veteran producer Rick Eldridge off guard, in […]<\/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-1390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the Fox Faith label the kiss of death?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Terry Mattingly's latest column for the Scripps Howard News Service looks at what happened to The Ultimate Gift, which came to theatres back in March and\" \/>\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\/08\/is-the-fox-faith-label-the-kiss-of-death.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the Fox Faith label the kiss of death?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Terry Mattingly's latest column for the Scripps Howard News Service looks at what happened to The Ultimate Gift, which came to theatres back in March and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/08\/is-the-fox-faith-label-the-kiss-of-death.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-25T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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