NEW YORK \u2014 Cell phone to her ear, \u201cJunket Bible\u201d in hand, the studio publicist dashed into a Park Avenue hotel lobby to face another pack of journalists waiting to catch another shuttle to yet another movie.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re the \u2018Texas Chainsaw Massacre\u2019 press,\u201d she said. \u201cRight?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Nope \u2014 wrong demographic.<\/p>\n\n
This particular set of scribes represented Baptist Press, the Parents TV Council, Good News Magazine, the 700 Club, Eternal Word Television Network and 20 other religious outlets. They were ready to meet the talent behind a Christmas comedy called \u201cElf,\u201d and \u201cRadio,\u201d a Good Samaritan parable wrapped in a football movie.<\/p>\n\n
New York City was in pre-holiday-movie mode last week, with reporters of every stripe bouncing through tightly-scheduled events promoting six new films. There were hobbits in the Regency Hotel elevators and one angel (of the Charlie variety) in the bar. Sushi, cookie and bottled-water suppliers were busy.<\/p>\n\n
In the middle of it all was Jonathan Bock, a unique Hollywood publicist who keeps underlining one big statistic for studio leaders \u2014 week after week roughly five times as many people go to church as attend movies. In the past three years, his Grace Hill Media operation has helped promote 30 mainstream movies in religious media, from small films such as \u201cA Walk to Remember\u201d to epics such as \u201cThe Lord of the Rings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe promote films with a moral message, films that encourage people to lead better lives, that explore God or hope or faith,\u201d said Bock, a Presbyterian churchgoer and former sitcom writer. \u201cOur goal is simple: we want Hollywood to make a ton of money from religious people. And if they\u2019re doing it, then that means they\u2019re successfully tapping into those themes. \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve begun to see regular occurrences of studios making subtle changes to their product so that it appeals to this sizeable audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
While Bock offers Hollywood a chance to reach pews, his work also offers religious-market journalists access to interviews and screenings that secular journalists take for granted. At the same time, actors and executives are hearing moral and theological questions whenever they enter what \u201cRings\u201d director Peter Jackson has called \u201cthe God room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Thus, \u201cElf\u201d producer Todd Komarnicki tried to explain how his film is an innocent salute to \u201cthe light inside of us that never dies.\u201d Director Jon Favreau described his decision to rein in his comedic instincts to switch from PG-13 to PG. Comedian Will Ferrell said he discovered that constantly \u201csticking a lot of crude jokes in there\u201d can be a cop out.<\/p>\n\n
And in the \u201cRadio\u201d interviews, Oscar winner Cuba Gooding, Jr., was pressed for insights into how his faith affected his portrayal of a mentally-challenged man whose friendship with a high-school football coach changes a Bible Belt town. The movie, which is based on a true story, contains few overt religious references \u2014 other than a church scene, a cross-stitch sampler of the \u201cSerenity prayer\u201d and the coach\u2019s office shrine for Paul \u201cBear\u201d Bryant of Alabama.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cGod\u2019s work is in everything I do and that is, hopefully, evident,\u201d said Gooding. \u201cBut with this movie, it\u2019s so much bigger than the conversation of religion. It\u2019s about a faith in the humanity of the people and, you see, that\u2019s about God, too.\u201d So spiritual lessons are present, he said, even \u201cwithout being specific about God\u2019s will in the life of these people of Anderson, S.C.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This kind of vaguely spiritual talk tends to make movie professionals nervous. It also falls short of the doctrinal rhetoric favored by Hollywood\u2019s fiercest critics.<\/p>\n\n
Meanwhile, the extremists in these two worlds \u2014 the hard-core Religious Right and Hollywood\u2019s lifestyle left \u2014 may never agree to sit down and chat with tape recorders rolling, said Greg Wright of HollywoodJesus.com.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cStill, I think what Grace Hill is doing is significant,\u201d said Wright. \u201cWhen religious people actually meet Hollywood people they discover there\u2019s no reason to get all hysterical about all of the things that they\u2019re always getting so hysterical about. The Hollywood people are not the demons they thought they were going to be.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThen the Hollywood people meet the religious press people and realize they\u2019re not the dithering fools that most Hollywood people think they are. Some even ask interesting questions they haven\u2019t heard before.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a start.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK \u2014 Cell phone to her ear, \u201cJunket Bible\u201d in hand, the studio publicist dashed into a Park Avenue hotel lobby to face another pack of journalists waiting to catch another shuttle to yet another movie. \u201cYou\u2019re the \u2018Texas Chainsaw Massacre\u2019 press,\u201d she said. \u201cRight?\u201d Nope \u2014 wrong demographic. This particular set of scribes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[324,341,431,1542],"class_list":["post-1251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-entertainment","tag-evangelicalism","tag-hollywood","tag-movies"],"yoast_head":"\n