Faith-based fare may get made-in-Mass

(JUN 06, 2007) Steve Bailey of the Boston Globe, covers a story on Hollywood executive David Kirkpatrick who has a vision for a $150M studio with jobs for 1,500.

Faith-based fare may get made-in-Mass.

(EXCERPT) Hollywood executive David Kirkpatrick has a vision: To make Massachusetts, the home of the Puritans that grew up to be the bluest of the blue states, into a hotbed of faith-based multimedia entertainment production.

Kirkpatrick, a former president of Paramount Pictures and a cofounder of the year-old Good News Holdings, whose mission is to produce “spiritainment” that will “please God,” is in search of 100 acres in his native Massachusetts to build a $150 million-plus studio to produce films, television shows, and commercials, both religious and otherwise. 

Magazine Highlights Most Dynamic Christian Movie Companies

(APR 05, 2007) Kevin Jackson of the Christian Post Reporter covers a Variety Magazine story:

“Magazine Highlights Most Dynamic Christian Movie Companies”

(EXCERPT) Six of the film industry’s “most dynamic” independent Christian movie firms were featured in the faith-based section of Variety, a popular daily newspaper for the entertainment industry.

Among other things, the featured piece explained how these movie companies have remained independent from the studio system in the past to keep true to religious themes, but also how many are beginning to partner with Hollywood to gain more exposure for their productions.

Hollywood Set to Honor Faith-Based Movies

(FEB 7, 2007) Randee Dawn of the Hollywood Reporter writes about the growing effects that Faith-Based films are having on Hollywood as Studios begin to ramp up their new production slates to include more “Christian” films.

 (EXCERPT) “Hollywood does not understand the people who live between New York and California,” says [casting director Reuben] Cannon, who was the first to describe [Tyler] Perry’s oeuvre as ‘gospel cinema’.  Now that I live in the South, religion is probably the biggest activity here. The Bible Belt is not just a name. It is real. Hollywood just hasn’t catered to the Christian faith-based market because it hasn’t been necessary.”

READ the Full Article by Randee Dawn on www.BackStage.com:

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/film/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003547509