{"id":2701,"date":"2005-07-18T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-18T10:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/07\/newsbites-quickie-aslan-aristocrats\/"},"modified":"2005-07-18T10:44:00","modified_gmt":"2005-07-18T10:44:00","slug":"newsbites-quickie-aslan-aristocrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/07\/newsbites-quickie-aslan-aristocrats.html","title":{"rendered":"Newsbites quickie: Aslan! Aristocrats!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

1.<\/a> Forget the Russell Crowe<\/a> rumours \u2014 following an announcement<\/a> at Comic-Con this past weekend, it looks like Liam Neeson<\/a> will be the voice of Aslan after all.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.<\/a> Reuters<\/a> reports that AMC Theatres is refusing to show a documentary called The Aristocrats<\/a><\/i>. I can understand why. I saw it a few weeks ago and \u201cdirty jokes\u201d doesn\u2019t begin to describe what comes out of the stand-up comics\u2019 mouths.<\/p>\n

3.<\/a> The New York Times<\/a><\/i> reports on the rise in religious imagery:<\/p>\n

In the summer blockbuster movie \u201cMr. and Mrs. Smith<\/a>,\u201d from 20th Century Fox, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play godless suburbanites and professional assassins. But when they steal their neighbor\u2019s car for an extended chase scene, a crucifix hangs conspicuously from the rearview mirror, and in the next scene the actors wear borrowed jackets that read \u201cJesus Rocks,\u201d as they go on the lam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to make the next-door neighbor, whose crucifix it is, be hip, young, cool Christians,\u201d explained the movie\u2019s director, Doug Liman. \u201cIt\u2019s literally in there for no other reason than I thought, This is cool.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And on it goes from there. E.g.:<\/p>\n

In some cases, such customizing has meant sanding the edges off dialogue that might offend churchgoers. For example, the actor Peter Sarsgaard, speaking at a tribute to his work during the Seattle Film Festival recently, said he was instructed to strike the word \u201cJesus\u201d from his dialogue during shooting this year of the forthcoming Disney thriller \u201cFlightplan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said: \u2018You can\u2019t say that. You can\u2019t take the Lord\u2019s name in vain,'\u201d Mr. Sarsgaard said he was told by the film\u2019s producers. He said he offered to say the line more reverently, but \u201cthey wouldn\u2019t buy it. I had to say \u2018shoot,\u2019 and that isn\u2019t as good.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or, then again:<\/p>\n

Universal, for example, showed \u201cRay\u201d at various churches to promote it by word of mouth but learned that while churchgoers loved the film, they objected to profanity using the word \u201cGod.\u201d<\/p>\n

The director Taylor Hackford, who had already expunged from the script stronger four-letter obscenities to satisfy his Christian financier, Philip F. Anschutz, made the choice not to edit the film further. But it cost the studio the active support of some church advocates.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hackford, who says he is not religious, said that Mr. Anschutz\u2019s restrictions forced him to be more creative in making \u201cRay.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s impossible for Hollywood not to reflect the nature of the country, and Bush has made his religion clear,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople in Hollywood aren\u2019t stupid. It flies in the face of what I believe, but you\u2019re still working in the movie industry, not the movie art form.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But then there\u2019s this:<\/p>\n

And just to complicate matters, a new study by a leading Hollywood marketing firm, MarketCast, suggested that not only do Christians watch mainstream entertainment, but the most conservative among them are also drawn to violent fare.<\/p>\n

The study of 1,000 moviegoers asked respondents to define their level of religiosity and their leanings, whether conservative, traditional or liberal, based on a list of social issues. About 70 percent of respondents said they were \u201csomewhat\u201d or \u201cvery\u201d religious.<\/p>\n

The researchers found that \u201cwhen it comes to popular movies and popular shows, tastes don\u2019t differ at all\u201d between religious and nonreligious, said Joseph Helfgot, president of MarketCast. \u201cWhat you find is that people with conservative religious doctrine are the most likely to see movies rated R for violence. If you compared it to liberals, it\u2019s a third more.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I can\u2019t speak for anybody else, but this Kill Bill<\/a><\/i> fan freely admits that he is part of the \u201cproblem\u201d, there.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Forget the Russell Crowe rumours \u2014 following an announcement at Comic-Con this past weekend, it looks like Liam Neeson will be the voice of Aslan after all. 2. Reuters reports that AMC Theatres is refusing to show a documentary called The Aristocrats. I can understand why. I saw it a few weeks ago and […]<\/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-2701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNewsbites quickie: Aslan! Aristocrats!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"1. 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