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What would Jesus direct in Hollywood? Remember “The Passion of the Christ”?. And now comes “The DaVinci Code.” I still don’t get those Christians who are ‘boycotting’ the movie.

This is a great conversation for our actors to discuss.

So What Would Jesus Direct? :

“MR. FLAHERTY: Nothing’s more transformational in human existence than faith. So no matter what story you are telling, you want to make sure that is a part of the story that’s represented. I think that one of the more powerful films that will come out this year is the Oliver Stone movie WORLD TRADE CENTER. It’s about two New York City cops, and they were stuck in a hole — one for 12 hours, one for 24 hours — and about the amazing things that happen in terms of when they were praying down there, their families that were praying for them, a gentleman in Connecticut who was in church who said that he felt like he was being called to the World Trade Center and eventually rescued these guys. I think too often we forget how mystical and magical our faith is, and I think we’re really starting to recapture that.

Mr. WINTER: Movies get made for a lot of reasons, and this festival celebrates filmmakers who want to make movies and want to make statements and show their art, and it doesn’t matter. They don’t care how people react. That’s great. Studios make movies because they want to make money, because it’s corporate America, and because of the spreadsheets, and so it is a ‘flavor of the week’ kind of business and it is ‘How can we get this movie to the widest possible audience?’

LAWTON: Going back to the title of this panel, which is ‘What Would Jesus Direct?’, what is Jesus’s next big project?

Mr. BOCK: I think the question can’t just be what would Jesus direct. I think it’s got to be what would Jesus direct and what would Paramount distribute, because, look, film is a collaborative process. It requires a lot of money. It requires literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. You guys have all watched the credits. There’s this playoff between what filmmakers want to make and what a studio wants to make as well.”

Have a great day.

Into the future,

davidT