No US distributor will pick up Charles Darwin movie

[Candlelight]

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/no-us-distributor-charles-darwin-mov

It seems the film Creation, a major-production biopic about Charles Darwin starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, won't be seen in the United States because no distributor with the guts to stand up to the religious right in this country can be found:

The film was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has its British premiere on Sunday. It has been sold in almost every territory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia.

However, US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".

Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of Creation, said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after On The Origin of Species was published.

"That's what we're up against. In 2009. It's amazing," he said

I find it amazing too. I would've thought at least someone would've picked it up.

Oh and please keep this thread on topic. This isn't a Creation Vs Evolution thread.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

I heard this on the Rachel Maddow show tonight. W. T. F???

 

[Rii]

It seems the film Creation, a major-production biopic about Charles Darwin starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, won't be seen in the United States because no distributor with the guts to stand up to the religious right in this country can be found

Or maybe it has something to do with money.

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

...

Nah, it's too easy.

 

[M'Sharak]

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

Good grief -- how can so many incorrect assertions be packed into so few words?

Edit:

It's odd, though -- not only can I not seem to find a review of the film at MovieGuide.org, I can find no mention of this film there at all. All I get is "There were no results found for your search". The words quoted seem instead to have been taken from a review of a book called Darwin's Racists - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. (The reviewer approved of the book, apparently, giving it four stars.)

 

[Canadave]

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

Good grief -- how can so many incorrect assertions be packed into so few words?

Well at least he got the naturalist bit right.

 

[M'Sharak]

I see that someone else has worked out where the words come from, as well. The reviewer is also the site's founder, and to say that he has an agenda would appear to be putting it mildly. I've seen Christian sites which present objective reviews that Christian parents may use as a guide, but Dr. Baehr's site does not seem to be one of them.

 

[Mr. B]

I mentioned in the the TNZ thread that this sounds more like the sort of thing you would see on HBO rather than in American theaters... people here don't generally pay a movie house to learn something.

 

[Miss Chicken]

This movie is more about Darwin's relationship with his wife than it is about evolution.

I would therefore put it in the same genre as "The Toung Victoria" and I was wondering if that movie was shown in the cinemas in the USA?

 

[TGTheodore]

Perhaps it's just a crappy movie -- regardless of ideology.

--Ted

 

[Miss Chicken]

I believe that it was very well recieved at the Toronto International Film Festival.

 

[Aragorn]

So no studio wanted to touch The Passion of the Christ, and no studio wanted to pick up a Charles Darwin movie. What does that tell you?

Maybe a "Darwin vs. Predator" with the Wayans brothers dressed up as white women will make it a hot commodity.

 

[Hoser]

people here don't generally pay a movie house to learn something.

I want to disagree, but the local independant movie theatre just closed up shop.
WHICH SUCKS.

Of course, two major theatres closed as well, so it's not really just the fault of independant movies.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Perhaps it's just a crappy movie -- regardless of ideology.

The preponderance of crappy movies that easily find distributors would seem to disagree with you.

I just don't understand how no one takes into account the track record of controversial (though this one shouldn't be) films in the US. People protesting your movie, and news coverage of that protesting, is free advertising, and it's consistently had the opposite effect from what the protesters desire - it drives up ticket sales. Distributors should be jumping at the chance to put out this movie and turn a nice profit on what should presumably be a very low budgeted film (and with the largely free advertising, even less of a marketing budget is needed).

Plus, taking on a movie with a controversial stance is a big boost come awards season, which in turn helps bring in even more money for other projects because more people check out nominated films.

Besides being cowardly not to distribute this film, it's bad business sense.

 

[Pingfah]

I mentioned in the the TNZ thread that this sounds more like the sort of thing you would see on HBO rather than in American theaters... people here don't generally pay a movie house to learn something.

Disney's "Earth" nature documentary did $32 million at the US box office this summer.

 

[RJDiogenes]

While there's no doubt that there's way too many religious nuts who make way too big of a nuisance of themselves, this makes no sense to me. If Religulous can find a distributor, Creation can find a distributor. In fact, for these religious nuts in question, probably 95% of movies and 110% of science documentaries offend their sensibilities, so why do we get to see... er... just about everything?

 

[Mr Light]

Only 39% of Americans believe in evolution?!?! How is that possible?!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Well, I can't say I'm surprised at this.

That's because I'm too busy looking for my "care" face so I can put it on.

 

[Starbreaker]

Perhaps it's just a crappy movie -- regardless of ideology.

--Ted

Maybe all it needs is a few special effects and about 30 F bombs to make it a billion dollar film.

 

[Ward Fowler]

It's amazing that this country can be so forward-looking in some respects and so backward-looking in others.

 

[B.J.]

Only 39% of Americans believe in evolution?!?! How is that possible?!

I really don't think that's an accurate statistic at all. That so-called poll could have asked some very narrow questions, or someone could have interpreted the results to get a very low number for whatever reason. In any case, it's highly doubtful that 61% of Americans don't believe in evolution *at all*. From my own experience, I'd say that the vast majority of Americans believe in evolution *in one form or another*. I'm not getting too specific here on purpose.