I've made it no mystery that I'm not a huge fan of Christian media despite being a Christian myself. In fact, I've penned articles on how horrendous I typically find it, with few exceptions, such as The Chosen.
The reason is that Christian media typically suffers, ironically, the same thing leftist media does in that it's message-first. The writers and producers are so concerned with pleasing the first row of the church that tight story writing and believable character arcs take a back seat. They're literally preaching to the choir with these productions.
I think The Chosen might very well have hit many a Hollywood producer with all the force of a bag of hammers, because after that, something shifted. Zachary Levi, more popularly known for his role as Shazaam!, the DC superhero, spoke to Fox News about how faith-based films are now coming to the forefront:
"Faith-based movies or faith-infused movies, really in the last 10 years, have started to show just how effective and lucrative they can be … which is why a lot of studios have spun up branches of the studio to focus on those types of films."
Levi added that earlier eras of Hollywood simply weren’t interested until studios realized how strong the audience was.
"Prior to 10 years ago, I don't know that anybody would have touched it because I don't think Hollywood really cared until they saw that there was money that could be made in that world. … There's a lot of really faithful people that go to church regularly and want stories that reflect their same faith."
This is great, and it's something I've been saying needed to happen for some time. Christianity needs to be present on the main stage because it is the most practiced religion in America. It only makes sense to have stories and films that speak to that aspect of a lot of people's lives, just as Hollywood did in the days of yore with movies like The Ten Commandments."
But while I'm pretty sure the public is ready for faith-based films, I'm not sure Hollywood is quite yet.
As I said, the issue Hollywood is having is that it's too message-heavy. Even when it's not pushing messages directly in your face, it's passively pushing its ideals into films. Race swaps, transgender characters, belief systems that shine through in conversations, and even shoehorned-in side plots are all over the place.
I do not doubt that, if presented with the opportunity, more than a few producers, directors, and actors would want to take some creative licensing when making these films, and I don't just mean in small ways. I mean in ways that would effectively shatter the underlying message or purpose of the story. I know they'll do that, because it's one of Hollywood's worst habits.
Even as I write this, Netflix is remaking The Chronicles of Narnia, and they've been rumored to cast Meryl Streep as Aslan himself. It's still not confirmed, but when the news last hit, she was still the front-runner.
I don't know if you've ever seen Noah, starring Russell Crowe, but it takes so many liberties with the story of Genesis 6:9 that it could hardly be considered a story of the Biblical flood at all. Director Darren Aronofsky acknowledges it's not very accurate and makes a lot of creative choices that make no Biblical sense, but one has to wonder why he needed to do that to make the film interesting at all. Why did rock angels need to be a thing? Why did there need to be a scene where Noah almost kills his granddaughters because he thinks God intends to kill everyone, including him and his family?
I don't want to say that everyone in Hollywood has a disdain for Christianity, and I think Levi, Chris Pratt, and Matthew McConoghey are proof of that, but I do think there are way too many people who do and if good films are going to be made, then Hollywood will have to conquer its own prejudice for starters, which is hard enough as is. Add to that the fact that they'll have to stop themselves from taking so much creative license that it falls into the ridiculous, like Noah, and you have a near-impossible scenario on our hands.
I could be wrong, and the studios' desire to make money will overpower their desire to throw around messages, but Hollywood isn't exactly the most intelligent place on Earth, so it's probably asking them a lot to just make a good Biblical movie.
