Fox Steps Out on Faith With New Film About Esther

c. 2006 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ It will play at more than 1,000 theaters across the country. More than 55,000 tickets have been pre-sold. But unless you go to church, you might never even see the trailer. “One Night With the King,” a film to be released under the new FoxFaith label, is […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ It will play at more than 1,000 theaters across the country. More than 55,000 tickets have been pre-sold. But unless you go to church, you might never even see the trailer.

“One Night With the King,” a film to be released under the new FoxFaith label, is Hollywood’s $20 million return to the biblical epic. And while the subject _ the Book of Esther _ is an ancient legacy, the strategy that is expected to fill theater seats is at the cutting edge of the new marriage between big studio money and grass-roots Christian organizing.


The film, which opens Oct. 13, tells the story of Queen Esther and King Xerxes. The story focuses on Esther, a Jewish orphan-turned-queen who reveals her nationality at a critical moment and saves her people from extermination.

An example of the film’s unorthodox recipe for success: G. Landry Humphries, who works with the homeless in the Los Angeles area, will fill one of the theaters with 350 children from foster care and orphanages on opening night. “Esther was an orphan,” said Humphries, who hopes the movie will inspire and lead children to read the Bible.

Because Esther was herself an orphan, ministry leaders are urging churches to bring orphans and foster children to opening weekend in a unique marriage between ministry and moviegoing. Matthew Crouch, the producer of the movie and CEO of Gener8xion Entertainment, hopes to build a bridge of trust between two historically opposed camps: Hollywood and the conservative Christian audience.

In place of more traditional marketing avenues _ fast food tie-ins, say, or network television spots _ Crouch is finding ways to reach out to church leaders nearer to their experience. He gained the endorsement of the venerable American Bible Society (ABS), an institution that is widely regarded as a non-denominational authority, which has labeled the movie “accurate to Scripture.”

He has also undertaken a marathon tour of talking personally with pastors _ “pressing the flesh,” as he calls it. “Pastors don’t ask what you do _ they ask why you do it,” Crouch said. “If you can answer that question, you can create a partnership.”

During his 16-day Pastor Screening Tour, Crouch screened a cut of his movie in 21 cities. Rod Rieger attended in Oklahoma City, and his congregation at Newcastle Christian Church is doing its part. Congregants watched the trailer, put up a cardboard display inside the church and bought out an entire show on Sunday of opening weekend.

Rieger said he got an earful. “They told us that opening weekend is really critical. It decides how long they’ll be able to keep it in the theaters. They stressed that to us all.”


“We need to support these or they’re gonna go away,” he said. If Hollywood continues to reach out, Rieger said he and Newcastle Christian Church plan to reach back.

Crouch is the son of Trinity Broadcasting Network’s (TBN) founders, Paul and Jan Crouch, whose Christian television network is the most lucrative ministry on the small screen. It is no surprise that a scion of this high-wattage Christian media outlet was one of the first to partner with the newly minted FoxFaith.

FoxFaith is the new division of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, which will produce and distribute at least six theatrical release movies per year “with a clear Christian message or based on material by a Christian author,” according to its press release. The company also will produce straight-to-DVD titles, and brand “family friendly” titles from their vaults with the FoxFaith logo. Though other major studios are making movies with religious content, Fox is the first to devote a whole division exclusively to explicitly Christian fare.

FoxFaith grew out of the studio’s recent success with evangelically supported releases, especially Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which grossed $370 million domestically.

“`The Passion’ gave us all our MBA’s,” said Steve Feldstein, a senior vice president at Fox Home Entertainment. “To be honest, we found a demographic that was underserved, and we were positioned to fill a need. It’s that simple.”

If it seems strange that the studio that brought out “Dude, Where’s My Car?” is getting into the Christian market _ and even offering Bible study materials through its Web site _ Feldstein said it shouldn’t.


“There’s no cynicism where it matters,” he said, citing Christian executives at Fox, like producer Ralph Winter, who have been involved on the project from the beginning.

For Crouch, there is only one condition necessary for the partnership to work. “You can have an automatic audience, as long as you don’t violate their faith. Do comedies, do action movies, do adventures _ all they ask is that you don’t violate their faith.”

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Heather Hendershot, a professor of media studies the City University of New York and the author of “Shaking the World for Jesus: Media and Conservative Evangelical Culture,” said the new partnerships in Hollywood should involve close scrutiny _ on both sides. “FoxFaith is capitalizing on a grass-roots niche. But you have to ask, is Fox playing them for their grass-roots organizing?”

While many have expressed an “anxiety” about an evangelical “takeover” of Hollywood, she said, Hendershot sees a more likely danger in the other direction: big studios taking business away from smaller Christian distributors.

“Pastors will jump on films to be recognized as an audience,” she said. The coming years are likely to bring them a sharp learning curve in Hollywood economics.

“One Night With the King” tells the story of Queen Esther and King Xerxes, and the bonds of trust in her marriage allow her to become a hero. Trust _ powerful, rare and hard won.


KRE/JL END ANTHONY Editors: To obtain photos from “One Night With the King,” go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

See related sidebar, RNS-ESTHER-EPIC, also transmitted Oct. 5, 2006. Note time element in third graf: film opens nationwide on Oct. 13.

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