Time to unload the last few days\u2019 worth of stories.<\/span><\/p>\n 1.<\/a> IGN.com<\/a> says Good News Holdings plans to start shooting its adaptation of Anne Rice\u2019s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt<\/a><\/i> in October \u2014 and they plan to shoot it in Israel. IGN.com says no actors or directors are attached to the project yet, but \u201ca casting search is on for the boy who will play the young messiah in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n MAR 31 UPDATE: Click here<\/a> for the official press release.<\/p>\n 2.<\/a> Justin Chang<\/a> of Variety<\/i> begins his review of The Reaping<\/a><\/i> thus:<\/p>\n Few recent studio horror pictures have courted (or, depending on one\u2019s perspective, pandered to) a Christian audience as blatantly as \u201cThe Reaping.\u201d Revisiting the book of Exodus in a feverish Southern-gothic context, this lurid, often ludicrously entertaining slab of Biblesploitation builds an earnest case for spirituality in a skeptical age. As demonstrated by the thematically similar \u201cThe Exorcism of Emily Rose<\/a>,\u201d there\u2019s an audience for this kind of faith-based sensationalism, and the chance to see righteous acts of Old Testament payback spectacularly re-enacted on the bigscreen should help Warner Bros. reap solid theatrical turnout, with an even richer ancillary harvest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 3.<\/a> Variety<\/a><\/i> has an item on new movie company Tripod Pictures:<\/p>\n Los Angeles-based company, which has funding through a European bank, is in post-production on \u201cSalomaybe?<\/a>,\u201d directed by and starring Al Pacino. Kevin Anderson, Jessica Chastain and Estelle Parsons also star in the reinterpretation of Oscar Wilde\u2019s \u201cSalome\u201d produced by Barry Navidi and Robert Fox. Atoori was exec producer while Jayez co-exec produced.<\/p>\n Tripod is also currently in post-production on \u201cGood God Bad Dog,\u201d a short film that examines man\u2019s role, significance and existence with and without God. \u201cGod\u201d stars Tom Sizemore, James Russo, Joanna Pacula and Tim Thomerson and was produced and directed by Atoori, who co-wrote with Mitchell Cohen; Jayez exec produced.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 4.<\/a> The Victoria Times-Colonist<\/a><\/i> says the Victoria Philharmonic Choir<\/a> is putting on a production of Handel\u2019s Samson<\/a><\/i> in which the titular biblical hero will be portrayed as a suicide bomber:<\/p>\n While the music will not change, the setting of the oratorio will be 1946 Jerusalem, to draw comparisons to the bombing of the British headquarters at the King David Hotel by the militant Zionist group Irgun. Menachem Begin, who ordered the attack, would later become Israel\u2019s prime minister and win the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n Capet says presenting Samson as a terrorist is not meant to offend, or cast blame, but to challenge our notions of what a terrorist is.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there any difference between pulling down a pillar or blowing a bomb?\u201d he asks. \u201cSamson killed thousands of people. To show him in the traditional mythological sense does a disservice.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hmm. As a professor of mine once put it, Samson is in some ways not so much an ancient hero as a parody<\/i> of an ancient hero \u2014 his ultimate suicide attack, as it were, is basically the best he can do after a lifetime of constantly, stupidly doing the wrong thing. So if the character already has a subversive element built into him, how much more room for subversion could there be?<\/p>\n 5.<\/a> Just for the record, I rather liked Black Snake Moan<\/a><\/i>, but I can\u2019t say I disagree with Kristen Tobey<\/a>\u2018s analysis at Sightings:<\/p>\n We\u2019re not supposed to gawk at religion, or at a naked woman beaten and in chains. But Brewer gives us license to gawk at them in tandem by making us think that we\u2019re gawking at the other one, each in turn. And in the battle for thematic supremacy, we end up taking neither wild sexuality nor wild religiosity seriously. The film sets itself up to present sex and religion as pervasive and powerful forces, responsible for who people are and who they become \u2014 but ultimately Black Snake Moan<\/i> deals with an ambiguous, tenuous kind of redemption that has little to do with either.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 6.<\/a> I used to listen to a fair bit of Hildegard von Bingen<\/a> back in the day, so I am intrigued to learn from Variety<\/a><\/i> and the Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i> that German director Margarethe von Trotta (1975\u2019s The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum<\/i>) is preparing a film about her:<\/p>\n The 12th century abbess became world renowned for her medical, botanical and geological writings as well as for the music she composed, which many consider a precursor to opera.<\/p>\n Bingen also was a controversial figure, the first woman to write on the subject of female sexuality and, for many, the world\u2019s first feminist.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 7.<\/a> The Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/i> has a story on Kingdom Come<\/a><\/i>, the 16th and apparently final book in the Left Behind<\/a><\/i> series. Um, wait a minute, you mean that series was still going\u2026?<\/p>\n 8.<\/a> The Associated Press<\/a> reports that Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh have lost their copyright infringement lawsuit against the makers of The Da Vinci Code<\/a><\/i>. But does anyone still care?<\/p>\n 9.<\/a> Variety<\/a><\/i> says a British film company called Albion Productions is turning to local Christians to raise funds:<\/p>\n The brainchild of producer-director David Fairman<\/a> and thesp Jon-Paul Gates<\/a>, Albion is looking for funding for its first title, \u201cDarkness Into Light,\u201d the modern story of a man who goes on a quest to find the truth behind the Resurrection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 10.<\/a> Epic Movie<\/a><\/i>, the lowbrow Narnia<\/a><\/i> spoof, comes out on DVD on May 22, in a PG-13 version<\/a> and an unrated version<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time to unload the last few days\u2019 worth of stories. 1. IGN.com says Good News Holdings plans to start shooting its adaptation of Anne Rice\u2019s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt in October \u2014 and they plan to shoot it in Israel. IGN.com says no actors or directors are attached to the project yet, but […]<\/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-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n