Hollywood’s Bias Makes 'Passion' Unlikely Underdog

townhall.com | March 1, 2004 | Joel Mowbray

[Dialup Llama]

What I like about the film is that it present the Gospel and references Messianic prophecies very clearly, but it doesnt have a religious feel to it and doesnt feel like preaching. It made it seem like you were part of the scene as it was happening. It was really well made and effective.

[Auntbee]

I agree with you. I took my sons (21 and 18) yesterday to see it. We all thought it was the best movie ever made. I'm going to see it again this next weekend with my in-laws.

[lilylangtree]

What tickles me is that Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, two of H'weirdo's money men, didn't get a pinkie onto Mel Gibson's profits. And these two men are crying themselves sick and threatening all kinds of reprisals against Mel. Hahahahaha! Mel's laughing all the way to the bank.

[Dialup Llama]

>What tickles me is that Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, two of H'weirdo's money men, didn't get a pinkie onto Mel Gibson's profits. And these two men are crying themselves sick and threatening all kinds of reprisals against Mel. Hahahahaha! Mel's laughing all the way to the bank.

What's even better is that The Passion also nuked any interest in Dreamwork's Eurotrip which is only in its second week.

[DentsRun]

What tickles me is that Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, two of H'weirdo's money men, didn't get a pinkie onto Mel Gibson's profits. And these two men are crying themselves sick and threatening all kinds of reprisals against Mel.

Mel's not out of the woods yet, unfortunately. There will be knives out for Gibson for many years to come. And if the number of anti-Gibson stories in the major media is any indication, the people who write the history of the culture war will invariably depict Gibson as an anti-Semite and his audience as hayseeds.

[pabianice]

$ 117M translates to 15 million guaranteed Bush voters.

[najida]

Hope Mel makes enough money to buy Hollywood and turn it into a sheep ranch.

[discostu]

But since Mel funded it himself and will get the majority of the profit those knives will be pretty dull. If somebody else had picked this up Mel would have gotten a minor percentage and he'd still have to survive as a regular Hollywooder; now with all this bank Icon can afford to become a real big budget (at least once) Hollywood studio, Mel can afford to work for himself entirely and let the rest of Hollywood kiss off.

[LiteKeeper]

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST - that's because the Gospel is not about religion, it is about the works of God

Someone recently made an interesting distinction between "religion" and "theology" - The study of religion is the study of the activities of man; the study of theology is the study of God.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

And how could you not get media attention about a movie showing the death of Jesus? Controversy sells tickets, certainly enough to cover a skimpy $25 million budget.

What's controversial? He stuck pretty much to the Gospel accounts.

[CyberCowboy777]

Even a decent non religious movie would be nice from time to time. "Second Hand Lions" was a great family film.

I would love to see a remake of the John Wayne flick "Angle and the Badman" (1947), maybe Mel could play the lead role?

[DentsRun]

But since Mel funded it himself and will get the majority of the profit those knives will be pretty dull. If somebody else had picked this up Mel would have gotten a minor percentage and he'd still have to survive as a regular Hollywooder; now with all this bank Icon can afford to become a real big budget (at least once) Hollywood studio, Mel can afford to work for himself entirely and let the rest of Hollywood kiss off.

That's true and for that I'm very glad. But his enemies are not without options. Gibson's production company wants to do a TV series. They can squelch him on that easily enough. Also, it's apparent from what has already appeared in the meainstream media that the history of this whole episode will be largely written by Mel's enemies. They'll do to him what they did to Charles Lindbergh. Everytime his name is mentioned there in effect will be an asterisk next to it: "Yes, he did these great things and he was a great American hero, but... " It's that ubiquitous "but" that I'm worried about.

[discostu]

I'll be long dead by the time the ubiquitous butts show up. And I think too many people have seen this movie and will continue to see this movie for the butts to have much strength. The best they can manage right now is "but some people thought it was anti-semetic".

I didn't know they were gunning for a TV series. If he's willing to go to cable (lower profits, but usually less interference from the network in question) they won't be able to stop him. What's the show supposed to be?

[justshutupandtakeit]

Mel has an interest in serious stuff as his "Hamlet" shows. He might very well do some more Shakespeare, too.

[DentsRun]

Hope Mel makes enough money to buy Hollywood and turn it into a sheep ranch.

I've heard the gross is about $125 million thus far. If he has to split half of it with the theaters, that leaves him with $62 million. Then another $15 million goes for prints and advertising and he spent $30 million to make the film in the first place. That leaves him with $17 million profit so far (and an increasing share of the theatrical gross the longer the picture plays).

I'll bet when he first proposed the film his finance people ran the numbers (worst case, most likely, and best case). I'd love to see what those initial projections were.

[N. Theknow]

Wonder if The Passion of the Christ will air on Easter Sunday night on an alternate network from the one that normally shows "The Ten Commandments?"

Mel Gibson was certainly a lot more "faithful" to the Bible (even Genesis 3:15 is embodied in the first minutes of the film) than Cecil B. DeMille was to the Book of Exodus.

[CalKat]

Gibson has at least three television shows he's trying to get into production -- one with Aaron Spelling, one with Touchstone and another with Joe Roth, the guy who, according to Drudge, said Gibson didn't go to the Oscars because he was afraid of being booed. He may have some others in a more conceptual stage as well.

[Green Knight]

I was thinking something similar a while back, that airings of The Passion of The Christ might become a regular Easter tradition the way airing The Ten Commandments currently is. Though either Gibson or Icon has said something along the lines of them not wanting it to air on tv, unless it's without commercial break. We'll see. But I can definitely see someone footing the bill for showing the movie only once a year, whether it's a sponsor who gets one long ad in the beginning of it and then in the end, or the network itself.

[DentsRun]

I didn't know they were gunning for a TV series. If he's willing to go to cable (lower profits, but usually less interference from the network in question) they won't be able to stop him. What's the show supposed to be?

The LA Times Calendar section ran a story about it three days ago. The link is below. Gibson recently proposed it to ABC. The series was to be called "Savages" and was about a divorced firefighter singlehandedly raising five sons.

Gibson won't be in the series himself but he told execs in his pitch that it was based on his own family's experience raising seven sons. ABC liked it enough to order a pilot. Apparently he pitched several others as well and they are under consideration.

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-et-collins27feb27,2,1369126.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels