Murdoch launches family and religious film unit
Hollywood is launching a new brand dedicated to producing religion-themed films ...
FoxFaith, part of the home entertainment division of Rupert Murdoch's film studio, plans to turn out up to a dozen films a year. And the first is already lined up for a limited two-week release in more than 250 cinemas on 6 October - Love's Abiding Joy, a western based on a series by Christian novelist.
Other releases will go direct to DVD for sale in Christian bookshops and other retailers.
Industry analysts are seeing the move by FoxFaith as the clearest evidence yet of the seachange in movie targeting, kick-started by the global success at the box office of Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ. In the US, Christian DVD, CD and book sales are some $4.3bn (£2.3bn) a year, and Christian programming is taking up a large percentage of US airtime.
Evangelicals and conservative Christians have in the past felt alienated from Hollywood, and have frequently been critical of the film industry's output, seeing it as all too often glorifying immorality and violence.
The purchasing power of Christian audiences became more apparent with the release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, criticised in some quarters for 'playing up' the Christian allegories in the story; and other studios have been making their moves, with New Line Cinema's The Nativity Story set for release in December. There is also a film version of Milton's Paradise Lost in the pipeline.
Laura Neutzling, vice-president of marketing for World Distribution, the distributors for Fox, has said: "We are excited to be having a place where people can go to see quality family films. There hasn't been a great one-stop place for Christians to buy great family films that they can trust won't be offensive."
