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Naturally, what happens to all showbiz types and Blacks who dare stray off liberal plantation is happening to Bill Cosby now that he’s shown some love for Tebow: the cries of crazy hasbeen! have begun.

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Sports psychologist turned film producer David Cook thinks Hollywood is starting to grasp the faith-friendly film market thanks to hits like “Soul Surfer” and “The Blind Side.”

Yet Cook says when industry executives circled around the film adaptation of his spiritually-driven book, “Seven Days In Utopia,” they weren’t sure it could draw a crowd.

It’s one reason Cook took control of the film adaptation. He started his own film studio (Utopia Films) to produce the movie and served as both executive producer and co-screenwriter.

“I’m a sports psychologist. What do I know about making a movie?” he asks. “But I do know about telling stories, and that’s what filmmaking is. I just made sure the story didn’t get botched up.”

Cook wouldn’t let Hollywood warp his beloved story about a young golfer who finds his stroke again after spending a week in a tiny Texas hamlet. That meant the film’s spiritual component stayed intact, but just as importantly the main character would be played by an actor who knew his way around the golf course.

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The broader strokes of the internecine conflict on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” have already been covered on Big Hollywood, but plenty of room has been left for detail.

Sunday’s episode of TWD left me with a bad taste in my mouth. For one, it took the band of survivors (henceforth, “the Gang”) for a stroll down a series of pulse-deadening subplots that I imagine did things like “develop characters” and “heighten drama” and “purge the crap out of some emotions” without involving any, you know, actual zombies. Nary a flesh feast to be seen in 45 minutes.

And while the conspicuous dearth of shotguns being primed for battle disappointed a blood-and-guts zombie aficionado like myself, it was something else that frustrated me most about the episode.

It shouldn’t be news to Big Hollywood readers that television writers are people of the left. If it is news to you, then you’ve got some catching up to do, Rip.

The writers of TWD are no different, and they have been quick to let us know that throughout the show via this season’s suicidal gun policy and the overriding caricaturing of conservatives (on a side note, this caricaturing extends even to the show’s “webisode” mini-series, as seen here and here).

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If comic book artists were rock stars, Billy Tucci would be more of a Yo-Yo Ma – a man whose talents would be recognized immediately by those fortunate enough to discover him.

I first met Tucci, an award-winning illustrator and graphic novel writer, at San Diego’s massive Comic-Con International in 2010. Tucci was intently drawing away in his display booth seated next to an aged but unbowed veteran of WWII’s famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

On closer inspection, I saw that that Billy was personalizing a panel connected with his then-current offering, “Sgt. Rock – The Lost Battalion.” This illustrated novel was a beautifully rendered fusion of the fictional Sgt. Rock combat hero with a historically accurate account of the 141st Regiment’s rapid advance into German lines only to be cut off in the rugged Vosges Mountains region.

Running low on food and ammunition and with casualties running high, the divisional commander made the decision to break the German siege of the 141st by sending in the 442nd. The 14,000 men who would serve in the 442nd, a regiment of Japanese-Americans recruited out of internment camps, earned 21 Medals of Honor, more than 9,000 Purple Hearts, and more than 18,000 medals overall – the greatest number of decorations for any unit of its size and duration of combat service.

Tucci has an eye for detail and, in the case of his military-themed work, this detail is fortified by personal service in the Special Forces as an enlisted man in the 1990s.

I saw Tucci again last weekend at the Austin Comic-Con, where his latest work caught my eye because it was so decidedly out of his usual superhero, military, beautiful fantasy samurai/geisha woman pinup genre: a graphic novel about, as Tucci said, “The greatest superhero of all time.”   (more…)

Why does Hollywood seem to despise Roman Catholicism?

Granted, the industry’s antipathy towards religion as a whole, and Christianity in particular, is pretty much a given. But it appears that within this circle, no religion to them is more anathema than Roman Catholicism.

The latest swipe at the world’s largest Christian population, all 1.1 billion of us (plus another 240 million Eastern Orthodox) comes from, surprise surprise, uber-leftist Susan Sarandon. It is interesting that she should accuse Pope Benedict XVI  of being a “Nazi” at this time because I was trying to figure a way to discuss all the good that Roman Catholics have done through incredible acts of bravery and self-sacrifice over the years.

To call the Pope a Nazi because, like all German youths, he was conscripted into the Hitler Youth during the Fuehrer’s reign of absolute power may provide Ms. Sarandon with a shot of self-righteous hauteur she so desperately craves. It also shows a lack of historical understanding that seems to be a requirement if one wishes to join the coterie of far-left fantasy-performer/activists.

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Remember when Hank Williams Jr. was a horrible human being because he analogized Obama’s golf game with John Boehner to a golf game between Adolf Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?  Of course you do; it resulted in his ‘Monday Night Football’ opener being pulled by ESPN.

That, of course, was their right, although they didn’t use similar discretion when some of their local radio hosts allowed Mike Tyson to fantasize about Sarah Palin being raped.

Where’s the reaction to Susan Sarandon calling the pope a Nazi? Perhaps you didn’t hear about that one, because she’s a Hollywood celebrity rather than a conservative country singer – and because Hollywood celebrities are usually granted full leeway to say idiotic things. In fact, Benedict served in the Hitler Youth unwillingly and was never a Nazi Party member. He deserted before the end of World War II and turned himself over to the Americans.

Now, I disagree with the Pope on a wide variety of issues: he received anti-Semitic priest Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk in 2007, he made a rather rotten speech at Auschwitz in May 2006, he was slow to respond to a British-born bishop who denied the Holocaust, and his perspective on the Middle East conflict is problematic.

Nonetheless, he has stood tall against terror on many occasions, and he has criticized in strong terms both moral relativism and radical Islam.

So what prompted the Nazi reference by Sarandon?

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Not only is Sarandon’s “Nazi” remark driven by hate and factually wrong, it is the very opposite of what we all know to be true about Pope Benedict. Sarandon is lying, she’s doing so intentionally, and if ESPN is going to fire a Hank Williams Jr. for making a Nazi reference, will anyone anywhere in the industry of entertainment do anything with someone who utters this kind of obscenity?

That was a rhetorical question.

Via THR:

“Susan Sarandon’s ignorance is willful: those who have hatred in their veins are not interested in the truth. The fact is that Joseph Ratzinger [the Pope] was conscripted at the age of 14 into the Hitler Youth, along with every other young German boy,” says the president of the Catholic League of America, William Donohue, in a  statement.

“Unlike most of the other teenagers, Ratzinger refused to go to meetings, bringing economic hardship to his family. Moreover, unlike most of the others, he deserted at the first opportunity. Sarandon’s comment is obscene. Sadly, it’s what we’ve come to expect from her,” Donohue added.

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Via THR:

On Monday, the Anti Defamation League also called for an apology from the actress.

Abraham H. Foxman told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement, “We hope that Susan Sarandon will have the good sense to apologize to the Catholic community and all those she may have offended with this disturbing, deeply offensive and completely uncalled for attack on the good name of Pope Benedict XVI.

“Ms. Sarandon may have her differences with the Catholic Church, but that is no excuse for throwing around Nazi analogies. Such words are hateful, vindictive and only serve to diminish the true history and meaning of the Holocaust.”

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THR:

Sarandon was interviewed by Bob Balaban at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor on Saturday. She said she sent the pope a copy of the anti death penalty book, Dead Man Walking, authored by Sister Helen Prejean. Sarandon starred in the 1995 big-screen adaptation.

“The last one,” she said, “not this Nazi one we have now.”

Balaban tried to dance around the comment, but Sarandon just made it again, Newsday reports. The audience also laughed.

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The very same leftists who will describe to you the horrors of the self-imposed morality code Hollywood lived by for decades are now creating their very own morality codes. Heaven forbid gay people receive the same satiric treatment as white, Christian, conservative males or any other group. Heaven forbid we forget that gay men and women are inoculated from satire in this country.

There is absolutely no difference from what you’re about to read below and those who defended the Motion Picture Production Code. These people are prigs, censors, and humorless moralists of the highest order:

To me, the series premiere of ABC’s new, Tim Allen-led sitcom Last Man Standing seemed simply annoying, what with its low-brow and overly testosterone-fueled humor. Macho jokes about what it means to be a man? Simply not my cup of tea, I thought. I was going to turn it off a few minutes in, but I kept watching half-heartedly until the show’s lead character Mike — played by Allen — uttered a “joke” somewhere near the end of the first half hour. And that’s when I lost it.

Let me set up the “joke” for you: During a conversation about his grandson’s daycare, Mike Baxter (Allen) laments that his daughter’s choice of schools is “hippie-hippie rainbow.” Fine, sure, it’s a stupid comment, but it gets worse. Mike’s daughter Kristin (Alexandra Krosney) explains to her dad that the teacher at this school “teaches sensitivity and tolerance.” Then comes Allen’s seemingly homophobic bomb: “I just don’t think your kid should go to that school,” his character Mike says, filled with disdain. “You know how that ends up: Boyd dancing on a float.”

I’ll reiterate the offensive part: “You know how that ends up: Boyd dancing on a float,” said with total disgust, as if a boy dancing on a parade float is an unacceptable, bad thing. My response: Huh? How is a boy dancing on a parade float anything but a joyful thing?

And that’s just the beginning; this joyless crybaby goes on for SEVEN more paragraphs.

How is that joke any different than the sitcom shots taken every quarter-hour at conservatives, Christians, tea partiers, and anyone who refuses to worship the State?

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Here we go again. Prepare to be shocked, appalled — even offended! — by another attack on Christians, namely Catholics, by none other than pope hater Sinead O’Connor. I’m just kidding about being offended; it’s obvious she’s screaming for attention (killing the pope? bet it took her a few weeks to think up that one) and, unfortunately for her, this article won’t just be about her but all of Hollywood. Sorry, Sinead.

What the formerly relevant singer said is not surprising, but then again, it’s never surprising to hear a celebrity disparaging Christianity. Remember this gem from Rosie O’Donnell?

I have news for Hollywood. It’s not risque to attack Christians, and it’s long been a cliché even for our side to say it’s overdone. If you want to be risque, attack Islam, atheists, or agnostics. My husband is a cradle Catholic (meaning raised Catholic), and he says most of these attacks just roll off his back. Most don’t offend or bother him anymore because it’s simply become the norm. But that doesn’t mean it should be ignored or criticism should be spared for trite offense-mongering like Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” video.

If you don’t want to watch the video, I understand. Lady Gaga is dressed in a blood red habit and swallows a rosary. This desecration of the rosary is offensive to Catholics because of our veneration (not worship) of Mary, mother of God. The director of the video claims Lady Gaga just wanted to take in the Holy. As a lifelong Catholic, Miss Gaga should know better than that, and if she wanted to “take in the Holy,” there are ways of doing it that won’t cause as many digestive problems, like attending Mass and taking Communion. (more…)

**Spoilers Ahead**

It’s time for the Week 3 review of Glee, the show we all (or at least some of us) love to hate. In case you missed it, I’ll be your guide to Glee this season, breaking down the inevitable liberal indoctrination that occurs with each new episode.

Monday’s episode of Glee included offensive stereotypes, soap opera-style betrayals, outfits worthy of the classiest strip clubs, and… prayer? Yup, that’s right. In a tender moment between teacher Will (Matthew Morrison) and his girlfriend Emma (Jayma Mays), she falls to her knees and prays in earnest, telling Will that she prays in her head all the time but sometimes kneels so that God can hear her better.

I really can’t find anything to criticize about that scene. Glee surprisingly didn’t portray people that pray as weirdos, hypocrites, or terrorists, and given its track record, I suppose we should be grateful. Will didn’t tell Emma she was stupid for praying; he just held her hand and joined her. It was a nice moment.

Now on to the rest of the show.

One of the funniest lines ever came when Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.) got an A- on his chemistry test. His girlfriend exclaims, “You got an Asian F?” I’m giggling just typing that. It’s funny because it’s true; culturally speaking, the Asian community places a lot more pressure on their children to succeed than other groups. Tiger Mom, anyone? (more…)

Ed. Note: This is the second part of a two-part excerpt. You can purchase the novel here.

The olive- skinned man with the Afro at the back of the room glanced around nervously. Whoever it was, he had found what he was looking for, and it was Dewey. Dewey recognized that. He saw it in the hatred, in the way the man’s eyes darted about constantly, settling back on him every few moments. Dewey knew when someone had come to kill him.

The killer was young, early twenties. He wore an orange polo shirt with the collar stuck up. He’d marked Dewey, a minute ago, five minutes ago, half an hour ago. He stared, unaware that Dewey could see him in the mirror behind the bar.

Dewey reached behind him and felt the .45 caliber handgun tucked into the small of his back, beneath the windbreaker. He stood up.

Dewey looked quickly at Talbot, who was deep in conversation with the Frenchwoman. He turned and pushed quickly through swarms of people to the door. There, in the glass of the door, he caught a glimpse of the bright orange shirt. The killer was following. Dewey had surprised the killer with his abrupt move.

He stepped outside onto the crowded sidewalk. It was still hot and he felt sweat pouring from his chest, wetting his shirt. He needed to move fast now. He jogged one block, then went left. He moved away from the strip, down empty sidewalks, past small houses. He jogged past car after parked car, beneath the glow of streetlights.

Looking at windshields as he moved, Dewey searched for a reflection, a sign the young killer was following behind. In the driver’s side window of a pickup truck, he caught a glimpse of the orange shirt. The killer, trying to keep up, was running too fast.

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The man known as the Machine Gun Preacher doesn’t consider himself a violent person.

“I will do whatever it takes to rescue a child. If it takes standing up to protect someone, I’m not going to use the word violence,” says Sam Childers, the subject of the new Gerard Butler film “Machine Gun Preacher.”

The movie, directed by “Quantum of Solace’s” Marc Forster, recalls Childers’ stunning transformation from drug addled ex-con to a preacher who risks his life to save Sudanese children from the LRA. The film co-stars Michael Shannon, Kathy Baker and Michelle Monaghan as Childers’ patient wife Lynn. And yes, the titular preacher is packing some serious heat.

Childers, a stocky gent with a handlebar mustache and a no-nonsense stare, says his brush with fame happened slowly enough to let him process it on his own terms.

A 2005 segment on “Dateline NBC” first introduced Childers to the public, and suddenly he was besieged by offers to write about his remarkable life. “Another Man’s War: The True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan” let Childers share his saga in print, but he approached a screen version of his life with caution.

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In July, South Sudan officially ended its decades-long struggle for independence from Sudan, the northern region controlled by Arab Muslims who tried for years to force Islam on the mostly Christian south. While the war is officially over, another battle continues, in Southern Sudan, and northern parts of Uganda. That war is waged against the terrorist organization known as the Lord’s Resistance Army, a wild force without a real goal beyond violence and destruction.

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Since the late 1990s, an American preacher has stood against this threat, his orphanage a safe haven in the ravaged land. That man is Sam Childers, a violent drug-dealing biker who underwent a mostly complete transformation after coming to Christ. I say mostly because two things haven’t changed: He still loves motorcycles, and he still loves to fight. Now though, he fights not in dim-lit bars after too many drinks, but in Africa against the LRA. There, he and a few soldiers from the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army take the conflict to the LRA. When LRA soldiers attack a village – intent on torturing, murdering or kidnapping its inhabitants – Sam and his team ride in, guns blazing, to stop them.

“Machine Gun Preacher” is that amazing story, told with great authenticity (thus the R rating) by screenwriter Jason Keller and acclaimed director Marc Forster, whose previous work includes “Monster’s Ball,” “Finding Neverland” and “Quantum of Solace.” A uniting force to Forster’s wide array of films is great characters, and he’s found an epic in Sam Childers, played forcefully by Gerard Butler.

It’s a compelling and accurate portrait of the preacher as a killer angel, the story of one man’s personal journey from drugs and theft into ministry on two continents.

Keller’s story crunches 30 years of Sam’s life into a few hours, and Forster’s film flows quickly from one moment to the next, roughly splicing scenes together with music and voice-over (but not narration) linking them. Forster’s transitions are artistic, though more easily appreciated the second time around.

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Sherwood Baptist Church Associate Pastor Alex Kendrick joined the culture wars after reading a poll claiming film, television and the Internet had a bigger cultural influence than the local church.

But Kendrick couldn’t predict the impact his Albany, Ga. church would make on a film industry indifferent to matters of faith.

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Kendrick rallied his 3,000-member congregation to fund the 2003 film “Flywheel.” The movie, which followed a sketchy car salesman who finds Jesus Christ, ended up playing six consecutive weeks at a Georgia movie house despite featuring an all-volunteer crew. The film’s shock success helped fuel “Facing the Giants” and “Fireproof,” two faith-based indies which proved more profitable than many Hollywood features.

“Fireproof,” budgeted at $500,000, hauled in $33 million with no bankable stars and a tiny marketing push.

By the church’s own standards, Kendrick‘s latest film represents a quantum leap in both budget and outreach.

“Courageous” tracks four police officers whose lives are changed after tragedy strikes close to home. It’s a tale of grief and healing, one that emphasizes the profound influence fathers have on their children.

The film cost $1 million to produce and will be shown in nearly 1,000 screens nationwide as well as in Canada starting Sept. 30.

Kendrick and crew researched the role fathers play in the family structure before making “Courageous,“ uncovering some alarming statistics along the way. They learned more than 90 percent of gang members come from fatherless homes.

“They’re looking for that belonging to a male group,” says Kendrick, who typically writes, produces and directs his church’s films as well as appears in front of the camera.

Children who grow up without a strong, positive male figure are also less likely to believe in a higher power.

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Coming Soon tells us “Gods and Kings” is a “whole new take” on the story of Moses in relation to “The Ten Commandments.”

 Deadline adds: 

Gods and Kings covers the life of Moses from birth to death. In between, there is his awakening to the plight of the Hebrew slaves that led Moses’ struggle against the Pharaoh for their freedom out of Egypt; the Ten Plagues; the Burning Bush; the daring escape across the Red Sea; receiving the Ten Commandments, and delivery to Israel. The film is not a remake of the 1956 Cecile B. DeMille-directed The Ten Commandments, which covered similar ground. Gods and Kings is based on the Book of Exodus and other stories from the Old Testament[.]

I’m torn.

After “Munich,” I hate to think what Spielberg would do with this. Do we really want to see moral equivalency in the story of Moses, where his actions to free the Hebrew slaves are somehow blamed for 9/11? After all, if Moses hadn’t freed the Jews there would be no Israel and if there was no Israel there would be no angry Islamic terrorists…

See how that can work?

In all seriousness, DeMille’s “Ten Commandments” still broadcasts on television every year and remains a vivid part of our culture. So where’s the urgency to try again? Also, Spielberg’s last foray into retelling this story through his company Dreamworks with the animated feature “The Prince of Egypt” didn’t fare all that well.

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 Earlier this month preacher Sam Childers and screenwriter Jason Keller came to Washington, D.C. to meet with reporters (a panel that included BH’s own John Hanlon, who wrote about the interview here) in advance of the release of “Machine Gun Preacher,” a new film by Marc Forster based on the life of Sam Childers, a drug-dealing biker-turned-preacher who runs an orphanage in Sudan. But he does more than that: When the terrorizing Lord’s Resistance Army led by the villainous Joseph Kony attacks villages and kidnaps children in northern Uganda and southern Sudan, Sam and his troop of Sudanese soldiers fight back and rescue those children from the clutches of their captors.

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Sam is a stocky man with an emphatic handlebar mustache. He’s shorter than you might expect – certainly shorter than Gerard Butler who plays him – but he has a presence about him compounded by his biker attire. Jason has the goatee, long hair and overall grunge look of a Hollywood writer.

My first question was about Jason’s introduction to the story. “One of the producers … called me. She said ‘I just heard the most amazing true story.’ She gave me a little thirty second [overview] and asked, ‘Do you wanna meet the guy?’ I said, ‘Yeah, gotta meet him.’ I met Sam the next week and that’s when it all sort of started.”

Keller researched the story for a year and a half before he began to really write. But it wasn’t until after he’d written a complete script that he made it to Sudan. “We were nervous about that,” Jason said of himself and director Marc Forster. “By that time we had a screenplay that we felt very confident about. … But we were scared that we were going to go over there and realize we hadn’t rendered the story in terms of the central Africa [part] accurately. We went over there and we had open eyes. I was prepared to do whatever I had to do to get it right.” Fortunately everything seemed to fit. “We really worked hard to get that screenplay right before we actually were able to go over there and see [the orphanage]. Not a lot changed. The only things that changed were some specific sort of character things for Deng (one of Sam’s soldiers), some specific things for some of the kids … but in terms of structural shifts not much at all.”

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Charlton Heston as Judah Ben Hur, the Jewish hero—notice the Star of David necklace—of Ben Hur, 1959.

The Los Angeles Times is, like the NY Times, a reliably anti-Israel newspaper whose liberal/progressive/leftist slant often veers into  support for the Jew-hatred that is the foundation of Palestinian terror.

Even their entertainment articles frequently marinate in a radical ideology that extends to an ignorant and vile denial of Jewish, not to mention literary history.

In this brief announcement of an anniversary release of a Ben Hur DVD, the Charlton Heston character, Judah Ben Hur, is referred to as a “Palestinian nobleman.”

In the book and in all the movies Judah Ben Hur is a Jewish merchant.

This charade of so-called Palestinian history is a replacement ideology, Jewish history erased by faux Palestinians, a post-modern construct with zero historical basis.

I might add that this is also a fabrication of movie history.

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***UPDATE: Some on Twitter are calling for boycotts of Michael Vartan. To quote a failed president: Let me be clear … I don’t believe in boycotts or guilt by association. My point in bringing up Vartan was to prove Hanks is a Hollywood player in support of my blacklist argument. It’s impossible to work in the world of entertainment and not be associated with a creep in some way. To hold this against Vartan would be extremely unfair and, in my opinion, fighting one blacklist with another.  However…

Hold it against Hanks all you want.

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Because too many of us have become desensitized to the vile attacks thrown at the Palin family on an almost daily basis, you have to sometimes imagine these things happening to someone else in order to fully to comprehend just how awful and ugly they are. Imagine it wasn’t 21  year-old Bristol Palin in that bar being heckled by a Hollywood bully, but instead it was one of Barack Obama’s beautiful young daughters being raged against by a tea partier.

“Your mother’s a whore!” “She’s evil!” “Your mother’s the fucking Devil!”

This is unthinkable … and yet it happened.

And the 47 year-old coward who attacked this young mother isn’t some street bum. According to TMZ his name is Stephen Hanks and according to his Twitter feed he runs Stephen Hanks Management in Los Angeles and one of his clients is no less than actor Michael Vartan, who some of you might recognize from the long-running television show “Alias”:

Again, I want to go back to our hypothetical world where Stephen Hanks is a tea partier who screamed “Your mother’s a whore!” at one of Barack Obama’s daughters…

Would Hanks have a career in Hollywood tomorrow? Would the condemnations we’re currently not seeing from anywhere in the industry be pouring in fast and furious? Would Michael Vartan drop him as his manager in disgust or in order to save his own career?

The answer to all of these questions is “of course!”

And who could blame anyone for having that kind of a reaction? I certainly wouldn’t. If anyone in my life attacked one of President Obama’s daughters like that and remained unrepentant it would certainly end our professional relationship and damage our personal one.  

But in the real world where this attack was levelled at a Palin all Hanks did was enhance his Hollywood resume. This will likely help his career, which brings me to another point.

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