Philip Pullman to publish novel about 'the Scoundrel Christ'

The Guardian ^ | 7-Sep-2009 | Alison Flood

[Cronos]

He enraged America's religious right with his portrayal of God as a senile old man in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and now Philip Pullman is set to court more Christian controversy – this time with a novel about "the Scoundrel Christ".

The book will provide a new account of the life of Jesus, challenging the gospels and arguing that the version in the New Testament was shaped by the apostle Paul. "By the time the gospels were being written, Paul had already begun to transform the story of Jesus into something altogether new and extraordinary, and some of his version influenced what the gospel writers put in theirs," said Pullman, who last year pronounced himself delighted that the His Dark Materials trilogy was one of the most "challenged" series in America's libraries, boasting the most requests for removal from the shelves because of its "religious viewpoint".

[Cronos]

I agree that he’s just looking for attention. But the problem is that if no outrage happens, people (at least the dumb ones) assume what he’s saying to be true — just like Dan Brown’s “novels”

[Brilliant]

You’re going to lose a lot more souls by making this guy’s book a financial success than you will by challenging it. If we’d ignored Brown’s novel, this novel would never have been written.

[Cronos]

That is debatable. I think that Dan Brown's novel would have been grasped by the simple minded (have you read that novel? he's not a good writer by any means, compare him to other potboiler writes and he's not even in James Hadley Chase's league).

[Brilliant]

I just saw the movie, which was a blockbuster even though it was a piece of trash. If it had not been for the controversy, you’d never have heard of it today.

[Cronos]

you may have a point

[LadyDoc]

it wasn’t a hit in the Philippines, but the anti Catholic stuff went over their head so the bishops didn’t write against it.

A lot of the anti catholicism of Pullman is very European, based on medieval cliches....and a lot of Catholics aren’t European.

[Cronos]

you’re right — you’ve proved brilliant’s point is, well, pardon the pun, brilliant

[PapaBear3625]

It bombed badly in the rest of the world except the UK and Japan.

The studio took a bath.

The production cost was $180M. They made $70M domestic plus $302M foreign, total $372.

The movie theaters get half the gross in the first two weeks, and it goes up from there, so between the movie theaters' cut and distribution costs, they lost money.