Incredible that this should frighten distributors in this day and age. It’s not 1858. Anyway, i’d be interested in how much time the film gives to Alfred Russel Wallace, co-originator of the theory and his letter to Darwin. He’s been written out of history.
I felt very, very sick, on seeing this item in the news.
It’s not that I’m dying to see a Jon Amiel film with Bettany and Connelly (she’s made so many bad movies that I can’t summon up any enthusiasm for her work; while he’s never lost the fire, and is strong even in worthless vehicles like e.g. The DaVinci Code). But – a failure to find a distributor for this film would deal another defeat to reason, in a society that’s already sick with anti-rationality, luddism, illiteracy (functional & otherwise) and an always-simmering censorious Christian theocratic urge. The legal victory in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District would mean that much less, if even a milquetoast biopic about Darwin were barred from U.S. distribution out of fear of the fundies.
This reminds me of the absolute rejection of Peter Greenaway’s The Baby of Macon among U.S. theatrical and video distributors, out of the same fear of Bible-thumping anti-cultural types. (I was one of the lucky few to see it in ’93 at The Museum of the Moving Image in New York.)
I like Paul Bettany, and I really hope this movie gets a release date. Please don’t force me to watch that piece of shit Angel movie he’s got coming out. Please.
I mean, yes, it’s crazy, but should it really be a surprise to anyone? I’m sure my saying this will offend many people, but the US is one backward nation in which “creationism” is taught at many public schools. It’s my country, but I’m fucking embarrassed by this shit.
By the way, this is how “de facto” censorship occurs in the United States. People mistakenly believe that there is total freedom of ideas in the US, but that is so far from the truth. Look at what happened to the omnibus film on 9’ 11" which featured works by the most acclaimed directors in the world. That film presented many perspectives that suggested some of the US policies might have contributed to the anti-US sentiments that led to something like 9-11 and it was effective “censored” for all practical intents and purposes. And of course, the US was the one country in which the film needed to be seen.
It did surprise me. Frankly speaking, some of the numbers are shocking when looking at polls of Creationism vs. Evolution. I knew people generally accepted creationism over evolution, but this poll done in 2004 by CBS seems crazy.
Americans do not believe that humans evolved, and the vast majority says that even if they evolved, God guided the process. Just 13 percent say that God was not involved. But most would not substitute the teaching of creationism for the teaching of evolution in public schools. (CBS) (This poll was conducted November 18-21, 2004.)
This was a poll done by CBS just after the 2004 election. The numbers may have changed over the last few years, but probably not by much. It’s no wonder the film hasn’t got a distributor. What seems really sad though is the fact that HOLLYWOOD: the supposed bastion of liberal ideals would take a stand against such a film. It’s still early in the festival and it may yet get a distributor. I hope so.
sadly to say…even if the film is distributed in the US…will it reach it’s intended audience?
Strawdog, the raw numbers are surprising indeed. They were for me when I really looked into the issue a few years ago. It’s one thing to be an agnostic and profess not to know for certain what happened—and really, who knows what really happened—but to somehow hold in higher esteem the words of a creation myth of one group of people over all others…truly sad, indeed.
>>“It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America.”<<
No it’s not unbelievable. Vomitable, yes, but not unbelievable.
>>I’m sure my saying this will offend many people, but the US is one backward nation in which “creationism” is taught at many public schools. It’s my country, but I’m fucking embarrassed by this shit.<<
That’s two of us, Blue K.
^ Make that three.
You’d think that if Religulous could find a distributor, a biopic about Darwin would have no trouble. I’m honestly a little surprised, though I guess I shouldn’t be.
I am having a hard time believing that US distributors are keeping away from this film because of the howling that might come from the religious right. Seriously. Those cretins howl at everything. LeRoy Carhart still opens his Omaha clinic every day in the face of death threats from anti-abortion nutcase terrorists. No more caving in to the howls of the insane. Release the damn film.
>>You’d think that if Religulous could find a distributor<<
Well, Bill Maher is a brand name, so to speak.
The problem with CREATION might be that distributors are not so much afraid of the fundie reaction as they are simply unable to figure out the promotional hook.
“It’s a great movie with people most of you have never heard of before” has never proven an effective tagline.
A sad commentary on public school education, Harry.
While I may regret that the general public (now as ever) is reluctant to take chances on things unknown (which no doubt explains the difference in box office take between, say, PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION and TRANSFORMERS 2), I’m not sure I’d advocate spending time & money in public schools to train people to be more adventurous in their cineplex choices.
And taste, alas, cannot be taught.
The movie looks like it would suck.
Actually, I don’t believe the hype about why this has not got a distributor yet. Think about it. Controversy sells. And so I think the producers are trying to build some controversy into the film to help get it picked up and released. From the Variety review it seems the film is less about the subject of evolution than about loss and grief – a “well-worn dramatic hook”.
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117941016.html?categoryid=2863&cs=1&query=creation
Harry
Note that Jennifer Connelly plays Darwin’s wife.
It actually sounds like a tired subject to me. I think most people know who Darwin is. Maybe the movie is just boring… this is a tired genra and subject, with tiring faces (Conelly).
How many Beautiful Minds and Hulks can you make?
Matt, there just might be something in what you say. It would not surprise me if that turned out to be the case. However if they are running spooked because of the religious right that is a damned shame and to echo Blue K and several others damn embarrassing in this day and age.
Matt L, I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that the producers of Creation would evoke a fake religious controversy to sell their product. Though it may be a truism that “controversy sells,” I don’t think that it’s a fact in corporate circles. Only occasionally have producers (mostly independents) staged a Barnum-esque embrace of controversy; but much more often they’ve either hacked the controversial film to pieces, or released but neglected it (even Citizen Kane suffered this fate), or just trashed it and took the loss.
>>Harry
Note that Jennifer Connelly plays Darwin’s wife.<<
And is hers a name that will drag innumerable butts into theater seats?
I sorta don’t think so.
I also sorta don’t think there’s anything about this film that’s going to make the general public shout, “I must see this movie!” Not in the kind of numbers that is considered successful these days.
This is not the same as saying this might not be a good or worthwhile film … but an advertising “hook,” it has nix.
Fake controversy. Fahrenheit 9/11 grossed over $100 million in the states. Religulous is one of the top-ten grossing docs in U.S. history.
“Fake controversy”
So you are saying that the filmmakers themselves are deliberately preventing the movie getting a distributor. How exactly could they do that?
@Strawdawg: Leak some reasons to the press as to why it isn’t finding distribution, rally up some press that it wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, then release through some “brave” distribution company. Lines like:
“‘People have been saying this is the best film they’ve seen all year, yet nobody in the U.S. has picked it up,’ Jeremy Thomas, Creation’s Oscar-winning producer, said in an interview with British newspaper the Telegraph.”
are a sure sign that this is just another in the string of Amiel’s attempts to have a respectable career beyond having once directed a good Dennis Potter script.
If Creation is the best movie of this year, then I’m probably going to quit watching movies. Biopics are never (with the exception of Raging Bull) the best movie of any year.
>are a sure sign that this is just another in the string of Amiel’s attempts to have a respectable career based on having once directed a good Dennis Potter script.
Ha – I was thinking the same thing!
Thomas is a great producer with a long line of remarkable films behind him: I don’t think he’s just “blowing smoke”—this difficulty selling this film is for real.
Subject matter aside, there are lots of films struggling to find distribution in the US, right now. Sign of the times.
Wiktacy: His history is admittedly impressive and genuinely adventurous, but who who has produced a film is going to put forward an actual personal opinion, which his language assures us he isn’t, before it has even found U.S. distribution?
…a little too little, too late. I find it amusing that those that visualize themselves to be so “open and worldly” minded, are some of the most CLOSED MINDED individuals that appear to be SOOOO Intellectual. To them I say, God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise, and I choose the foolishness of the preaching of the Cross of Christ over the ridiculousness that this age has embrassed. Don’t doubt this, Darwin may have become the Profit (False) of this generation and ones’ past,but God is the Eternal Prophet, and all of these (little) gods, will one day bow their knee to Him. I hope and pray that you do it voluntarily, while you have His Grace and still a chance to ditch your pride and follow Him.
God bless all of His Creatures/Creation. It is only Grace, that we are all not consumed, where we sit, stand, or otherwise!
troll
strawdawg
Is it just me or is it crazy that a film like this can’t get a distributor in the States:
“Creation, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival last week, might be winning favourable early reviews, but its still-controversial protagonist — naturalist Charles Darwin — has prevented the film from snagging U.S. distribution, according to one of its producers.
The Jon Amiel biographical drama stars real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as the evolution theorist and his devout wife, during the period when Darwin struggled with his faith, the loss of a beloved daughter and with the decision to publish his seminal On The Origin of Species.
Though Creation has scored deals to screen in movie theatres around the globe, U.S. distributors have been reluctant.
“People have been saying this is the best film they’ve seen all year, yet nobody in the U.S. has picked it up,” Jeremy Thomas, Creation’s Oscar-winning producer, said in an interview with British newspaper the Telegraph.
“It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America.”
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tiff/story/2009/09/14/creation-distribution-none-us.html
I should think even the doubters of creation might be able to handle this movie. Are the distributors THAT chicken?