Hollywood - Born Again !

Hollywood Gets Religion?

Former Pennsylvania Senator and conservative runner-up of the 2012 Republican nomination for the Presidential run, Rick Santorum has resurfaced as the Head of a movie studio - taking the helm of Christian faith-based Echolight Studios.

Echolight has release eight straight-to-video feature films since its inception in 2011 and currently has four movies in post-production. By Hollywood standards Echolight's productions, which cost $2-2.5 million, are small-fry, but Santorum believes Christian valued, family-friendly movies have a large audience to serve which has been  neglected by Hollywood (see insert of recent Echolight film "Redemption").  Santorum said he hopes to attract Hollywood film-makers to the cause, stating "We're looking for talented people who want to make quality films even though we won't be spending tens of millions of dollars on each film.  We want good writers, actors, and producers who want to make honest, uplifting content." Adding, "There's a lot of good family movies produced in Hollywood, but in almost every one of them there's a scene where, I say, Why did they put that gratuitous sex, language, or violence in there? To me, it diminishes the film, so we won't be doing that. Even in faith-based films, Hollywood tends to water down the truth."

Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Echolight is far removed from Hollywood but is on a mission. Santorum says, "I don't want to preach to anybody, I just want to portray faith as it really is, and we're going to be telling a lot of true-life stories, and we're going to make them comfortable even for people who are not of faith, because they are honest.  That's the challenge for us, and it's what Hollywood tends to shy away from."

Irregardless, my take is: any movie that gets people into cinemas is a good movie be it faith-based or not. There may be, as Santorum alludes to, a huge untapped audience which desires to be entertained by Christian faith-based films, if so - great, Echolight hopefully will tap into it.

Best and Happy Movie Going!
Jim Lavorato