|
|
This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Church bookings for The Passion
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dino Panagiotopoulos
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 139
From: Windor, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jan 2003
|
posted 02-03-2004 11:39 PM
Ad Timed to Gibson Film Release Refused
Tue Feb 3, 4:36 PM ET
By BOBBY ROSS JR., Associated Press Writer
DALLAS - AMC Theatres is refusing to accept a 30-second ad produced by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and timed to coincide with the Ash Wednesday opening of Mel Gibson (news)'s "The Passion of the Christ."
Like many evangelical Christian groups throughout the nation, the 2 million-member Baptist convention hopes to take advantage of the publicity generated by Gibson's R-rated epic about the last hours of Jesus.
Rick King, spokesman for AMC Entertainment Inc., based in Kansas City, Mo., said he couldn't address the specific situation.
In general, King said, "Screen advertising is a pretty sensitive area and we have a pretty tight set of guidelines for what we will place on our screens and what we won't."
Regal Entertainment Group of Knoxville, Tenn., whose holdings include United Artist theaters, has accepted the ad.
"The advertisement meets all of our standards and guidelines," Regal spokeswoman Lauren Leff said. "There's no reason why we wouldn't run it."
Becky Bridges, communications director for the association of 5,700 Texas Baptist churches, said the black-and-white ad is designed to "spark some interest and questions on the part of younger viewers about the story of Christianity."
The ad opens with a young man asking: "You want to see the most scandalous story ever?"
Words then flash on and off the screen: "Betrayal. Sin. Adultery. Greed. Envy. Weakness. Poverty. Torture. Murder."
"Redemption," the actor says.
The ad ends with the message "Now playing at a Baptist church near you" above a Baptist General Convention of Texas logo.
AMC has been "very vague about why" it declined the ad, Bridges said, with company officials describing it variously as "too dark" and "too Christian."
"We followed all their regulations: not using Jesus, Bible or any other overt God talk," she said. "We do not use religious symbols or icons. We do not attempt to use guilt or other things that might appear to be judgmental or proselytizing.
"In my opinion, it is a good teaser which is edgy enough that audiences will find it intriguing, but not offensive," she added, noting that the ad's art director was Catholic and the director Jewish.
Texas Baptists plan to run the ad on about 200 Regal theater screens in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Bridges said. At a cost of about $40,000, the ad will run for four weeks starting the Friday before the Feb. 25 opening of Gibson's movie.
The convention also had hoped to show the ad on about 150 AMC screens in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Bridges said the convention approached theater chains that it knows accept regional advertising and don't require a national contract.
King said ads accepted by AMC must be appropriate for all audiences — those coming to see a children's film such as "Finding Nemo" as well as someone expecting the graphic nature of a drama such as "The Passion of the Christ."
"In general terms, we don't allow any kind of negativity," King said. "We do run ads for a number of churches and organizations, but this particular one would need some modifications to meet our guidelines."
Bridges said the Baptist convention offered to soften its ad, including taking out references to "murder" and "torture," but that did not appease AMC, she said.
Gibson's movie, with dialogue in Latin and Aramaic and English subtitles, is set to open on 2,000 screens nationwide — an unusually large release for an independent religious film made in dead languages.
Some critics of "The Passion of the Christ" worry that its depiction of the role of Jewish leaders in Jesus' final hours will revive the idea that all Jews are to blame for his death.
Gibson has repeatedly denied that his film maligns Jews. It has won praise from many prominent Christians including evangelist Billy Graham. An aide to Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II has said the pontiff felt the film accurately shows what Jesus went through, although the Vatican (news - web sites) recently backed away from that statement, declaring that the pontiff "does not make public judgments on artistic works."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040203/ap_en_mo/jesus_film_ads_1
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Steve Kraus
Film God
Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000
|
posted 02-04-2004 09:21 AM
The New York Times February 4, 2004
[Excerpt]
Gibson to Delete a Scene in 'Passion'
By SHARON WAXMAN
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 3 — Mel Gibson, responding to focus groups as much as to protests by Jewish critics, has decided to delete a controversial scene about Jews from his film, "The Passion of the Christ," a close associate said today.
A scene in the film, in which the Jewish high priest Caiaphas calls down a kind of curse on the Jewish people by declaring of the Crucifixion, "His blood be on us and on our children," will not be in the movie's final version, said the Gibson associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The passage had been included in some versions of the film that were shown before select groups, mostly of priests and ministers.
"It didn't work in the focus screenings," the associate said. "Maybe it was thought to be too hurtful, or taken not in the way it was intended. It has been used terribly over the years."
Jewish leaders had warned that the passage from Matthew 27:25 was the historic source for many of the charges of deicide and Jews' collective guilt in the death of Jesus.
Mr. Gibson's decision to remove the scene could indicate that he was being responsive to concerns of Jewish groups that the film will fuel anti-Semitism. Mr. Gibson was the co-writer, director, producer and financier of the $25 million film, which will be released in more than 2,000 theaters on Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday.
Full Article
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
![[thumbsup]](graemlins/thumbsup.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic