Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 12/13/21
No fantasy. Lewis is a box office hit. Following its surprisingly successful November 3rd opening night box office of over $1.2 million on 430 screens ($2,846 per screen average), The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis wrapped its limited theatrical film run (after four ‘popular demand’ extensions) on December 2 with receipts topping the $3 million mark. That’s a big number for an event cinema release. As a result, Fellowship for Performing Arts is now offering the biopic via Premium Video on Demand (PVOD) exclusively at: CSLewisMovie.com through January 2nd.
“The film was announced with little fanfare. Expectations were minimal,” notes FPA founder and artistic director Max McLean who portrays the older Lewis in the movie, adding “That changed as soon as the movie trailer went live and tickets went on sale. I was thrilled by how quickly the movie theaters responded and that they continued to show the movie for a full month! Now that the film has completed its theatrical release, we know that demand is still strong, so we made the decision to offer premium video on demand for viewing exclusively through CSLewisMovie.com in time for the Christmas holidays.”
Here’s McLean talking about the film which chronicles the life of the renowned Christian author and Narnia creator with John West of the Discovery Institute.
Kingdom come. This from Deadline: Yolanda Adams and Serayah have been tapped to star in Kingdom Business, a music-driven drama executive produced by DeVon Franklin (Miracles From Heaven), Holly Carter (The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel), multi-Grammy-award-winner Kirk Franklin and Michael Van Dyck.
Written by John Sakmar and Kerry Lenhart, co-creators of Mr. & Mrs. Smith the series, the eight-episode Kingdom Business explores the gospel music industry through the lenses of family, faith, love and the redemptive power of music.
IMHO: The show sounds like an inspirational and faith-themed take on Empire. I see the potential for a breakout broad-based hit that should should probably air on CBS rather than the more niche ViacomCBS holding BET as currently planned. I’d also suggest ditching the word Business from the show’s title. It suggests a note of cynicism that I doubt Franklin and the other producers intend or that its target audience is looking for.
A Guardian Angel on a new mission. Last year, while running for mayor of New York City, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa talked with me about how his Catholic upbringing laid the foundation for his lifelong commitment to serving the community. After our conversation, he went on to secure the GOP nomination but ultimately lost to Democratic Party candidate Eric Adams.
Now, showing he intends to remain a player in the Republican Party, the maverick activist has set his eyes on flipping the seat of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the 2022 midterms. Toward that end, he has launched a new Super PAC and website called Save the Senate with the very direct and succinct message Stop Schumer Now.
Sliwa told the New York Post he plans to raise millions of dollars to defeat Schumer and promote a viable Republican opponent. Schumer, who he calls “the poster child on why there should be term limits,” was first elected in 1998 and is seeking a fifth term.
IMHO: Between the apparently deliberate stoking of social unrest, the politicization of science, hostility toward common sense election security, education policies that seem designed to promote shame, anger and fear of the future among young people (resulting in skyrocketing depression), out of control and inflationary spending, open borders, rampant crime, irresponsible foreign policy and the unprecedented power in the hands of multinational corporate media/technology behemoths and online mobs, I’ve honestly have never seen national leadership worse than what we have right now – and I’ve been around for a while. Schumer is only part of the problem but he is, indeed, part of the problem. It’s time for him to go.
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