Christians in Cinema

Ryne Pearson is a published novelist with five books (soon to be six) in print, one of which was the source novel for the 1998 Bruce Willis film Mercury Rising. Father of two sons and a devout Catholic who has two priests that are uncles, Ryne’s worldview of faith comes through in his latest screenplay for the Nicolas Cage film Knowing.

News reports indicate that the Vatican, rather than calling for a ban on The Da Vinci Code sequel Angels & Demons, is advocating caution for the Church. In a statement to the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, said that [...]

The Christian Filmmakers Forum is hosting a 36-hour film festival. Beginning Friday, April 10 (Good Friday) at noon, filmmakers will have 36 hours to produce a 3-minute video. 36 hours later (midnight of Easter Sunday), they will upload their films to YouTube for judging.
Judging criterion is story, cinematography, sound, performance, and editing. That’s not much [...]

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group is launching its own branded manufacturing-on-demand (MOD) DVD system at a new studio site. The label called “Warner Bros. Archive Collection” will include films and television shows that have never been released on DVD.
Starting today, consumers can select from 150 films priced at $19.95 each, and can preview 30 seconds [...]

So much of Western religion is focused on the individual – learning scripture to know how to change my life. But what you’re talking about is a greater awareness of God and letting that change my life. God becomes a being we want to approach.

Paul: We say the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace,” and we rattle them off. We don’t think about the fact that all of that existed before we showed up. Those things aren’t telling us the way we’re supposed to be now that we’ve been created. It’s not a list that the Spirit has on His mirror and checks off every day saying, “These are the things we’re trying to give these human beings in our basket of gifts.”

In 2007, author William Paul Young ignited a firestorm within the Christian and publishing communities with his novel The Shack. Originally written as a story for his children, he had no idea that the allegory of his own journey would rise to the top of the New York Times’ Bestseller list, the USA Today Bestseller list, and that of any other publication tracking book sales.

This morning one of the first pieces of news I saw was about Natasha Richardson, actress and wife of Liam Neeson. While taking a skiing lesson north of Montreal on Monday, she fell, but quickly regained her footing. After about an hour, she began to complain of headaches, and was rushed to a nearby hospital. [...]

Are you a MAC or a PC? Are you the cool guy with the casual clothes who doesn’t need to brag about his prowess, or are you the slightly dumpy guy who has to have corrective lenses and consistently apologize for your software’s poor performance?
Now there’s a new campaign in town: I’m a PC. On [...]

According to the Los Angeles Times Entertainment section, Sony Pictures announced yesterday a reduction of 350 jobs, (5% of their workforce) both through layoffs and elimination of open positions. Of that number, about 250 were layoffs, including 120 in the Los Angeles area and Culver City studio. Sony Pictures chairman Michael Lynton and co-chairman Amy [...]

A recent article on Christian Post highlights a new twist on marketing films to faith audiences. Christian film pioneer Rich Christiano is releasing his new film The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry on September 18, but he’s not scheduling the theaters. Nor does he have an employee, associate, or PR firm handling it. Instead, he’s relying [...]

Have a film you want the world to see? Talk with Kyle Prohaska of Praise Pictures about posting it on his new site ChristianFilmTrailers.com. Kyle’s goal is to make it the “Apple trailers” site of the Christian film world in the next year.
The few first trailers are already up. The headliner is a thriller called [...]

According to a recent news report, Virgin Megastores will close all of its retail locations by this summer. The chain that began as a music seller has positioned itself as an overall entertainment lifestyle retailer. Apparently the slumping CD retail business was not supported enough by other entertainment products to keep the stores open. In [...]

World Vision, in conjunction with Sojourners, challenged filmmakers to submit short films addressing the question, “What can you do to end poverty?” The results highlight the issue of poverty in our world and encourage  us to do what we can to make a difference.
The videos will be judged by a celebrity panel as well as [...]