SACRED HEART CHURCH NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUTMovie about The Blessed Mother
Remnant Newspaper article
Hollywood & The Virgin Mary
Variety reports (Jan. 24, 2006) that New Line Cinema has launched development of a feature film version of the story of the Virgin Mary. The script for the film, Nativity, was written by Mike Rich, who also scripted Finding Forrester, The Rookie, and Radio.
Rich told Daily Variety that his script for Nativity covers a two-year period of Mary and Joseph's life, culminating in their leaving Nazareth and journeying 100 miles to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. The story is aimed at fleshing out key characters such as King Herod; John the Baptist's parents, Zachariah and Elizabeth; the shepherds who were witness to Jesus' birth; and the arrival of the three kings from the Orient.
New Line's purchase of Rich's script is described as a "pre-emptive purchase," since the company's interest in the project is influenced by the phenomenal box-office success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. "You can't ignore a film that does $600 million in global box office," said Rich. The author believes that the story told in Nativity "is a natural bookend to The Passion," that it is "challenging," "compelling"and contains "the timeless themes of hope, inspiration, doubt and fear."
New Line Cinema, a unit of Time Warner, is the oldest independent film company in the world. It has been a pioneer in franchise filming and its Lord of the Rings trilogy is the most successful film franchise in history. The Nativity project is currently in the development stage. To date, no producer, director or actors have been attached to it, nor has a final budget been set. As a result, the film is unlikely to be ready for release before late 2007.
Comment: Lest anyone be tempted to welcome the news of a major motion picture treatment of Mary and Joseph, there is a bit of background information worth mentioning. Mike Rich, the author of the Nativity script, says he got the idea for the film back in December 2004, when both Time and Newsweek magazines featured cover stories concerning the "historical truths" surrounding the birth of Jesus. After doing "research," he pitched the film idea to New Line in late 2005 and wrote the script "very quickly" in December.
The same thing happens every December, like clockwork. News magazines, such as Time and Newsweek, as well as both network and cable television stations, release special editions purporting to tell us the "historical truths" about the birth of Jesus. Illustrated with reproductions of beautiful Renaissance paintings in order to make the fare more palatable to the consumer, these historical documentaries parrot the same lies ad nauseam: The Virgin Mary was either an adulteress, or the victim of sexual assault; Or perhaps, St. Joseph was Jesus' dad, after all; Jesus was not Divine; the Gospel accounts of angels, shepherds and magi were just so much pretty fluff. We might even learn that Jesus was born in Nazareth, not Bethlehem. They can't even leave that alone. Backed by the testimonies of apostate priests and feminist nuns, these historical documentaries feature journalists and narrators running in third-gear "sincerity mode." Hey, they're really after the truth, folks!
Granted, the film is still in the development stage. But, if screenwriter Mike Rich has based his research for Nativity on the nonsensical theological/historical tirades of Time and Newsweek magazines, what can his film turn out to be but yet another run-of-the-mill "Sacrilege Special," albeit with a higher budget and better production value? And, again, we witness the pathetic spectacle of Hollywood trying to ride Mel Gibson's coattails, while remaining both oblivious and hostile to the true Spirit which animated The Passion of The Christ
posted by Ginny @ 8:30 PM
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