Movies take a spiritual turn

CROWE. Topbills big-screen adaptation of “Noah.”

Don’t look now, but global entertainment is about to take a decidedly spiritual turn. No, the cold-blooded hacks and hucksters of the beastly biz haven’t suddenly found God, they’ve pragmatically looked at the impressive ratings and profits of last season’s “The Bible” miniseries on the History Channel, and they want to make all that money and manna from heaven, too!

So, for 2014, producers have lined up an unusually significant number of religious TV and film productions, directly aimed at the evangelical niche audience that gave “The Bible” an impressive 11 million viewers each week when it ran on History.

First up is “Noah,” topbilled by Russell Crowe, with a huge cast of actual and digitized animals and humans powerfully retelling the story of how Noah and his Ark saved many creatures from drowning in the biblical deluge so dramatically detailed in the Old Testament.

The production’s impact and reason to be seen have become even more topical of late, due to the ravages of global warming, which Supertyphoon “Yolanda” recently forced us to tragically acknowledge. So, the production should prove to be eminently “relatable” when it’s shown!

The Blessed Virgin Mary gets her share of cinematic attention by way of “Mary of Nazareth,” which we hope will make young viewers know and love the Mother of Christ with renewed clarity and fervor.

After all, Mary was just in her early teens when she became a mother, so her story should be most empathetic as far as young believers and even Beliebers are concerned!

For his part, Brad Pitt is reported to be prepping up to produce and act in a film about—Pontius Pilate. Then, there’s the story of Abel and Cain in “Exodus.” And another religious production, “Son of God,” is also in the pipeline.

Decision

The manna and money may be good, but we hope that there’s more than just financial logic involved in some producers’ decision to “go spiritual.”

For instance, the Burnetts produced “The Bible” with avowedly evangelical intent, so the fact that the miniseries turned out to be a hot hit was additional icing on the cake.

Evangelical objectives aside, another factor that’s relevant in the trendy rise of spiritual movies and TV shows is the fact that religious productions have great reissue potential.

For instance, those old “bathrobe” epics, “The Ten Commandments” and “The Robe,” keep getting shown and reshown.

So, prospective producers, when in doubt, go spiritual! And we trust that your hearts (and souls) are in the right place!