Minister, Leading Film Makers to Produce Mainstream Movie

Angered by what he sees as the lack of “uplifting and inspirational” Hollywood movies, a nationally known television and radio minister says he is going to lead his flock into the film business.

Dr. D. James Kennedy, whose Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church is based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., cited Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” as the catalyst in his decision to use his ministry to make the kinds of movies Hollywood won’t.

“We’re tired of sex and blasphemy and immorality, of sadism and influencing people for ill,” Kennedy said. “We believe there are people who would like to watch something other than drugs and sex. Now, I know that there are various kinds of reality in this country, including the reality of the toilet . . . Well, how about the realities of morality and courage and devotion?”

Kennedy said his ministry’s aim “is not to make religious movies, but mainstream films” along the lines of “Chariots of Fire,” and to involve leading Hollywood film makers who share their concerns. He said Howard Kazanjian, who produced “Return of the Jedi,” will produce the ministry’s first movie. No project has been selected yet, he said, but a tentative budget has been set for $13 million.

Kennedy said he hopes to begin raising approximately $225,000 in “seed money” for script development by appealing to his weekly TV audience. The first appeal, which will follow the formal announcement of the film-making plans, will be delivered in a broadcast in early March. The one-hour show is seen on about 200 stations in the United States. It airs in the L.A. market at 5 a.m. Sundays on CBN, and again at 8 a.m. on KTBN Channel 40.

In a transcript of the already-taped broadcast, Kennedy describes Clark Gable’s closing line in “Gone With the Wind” (“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”) as the “crack in the dike.”

“Everything began to flow gradually from that,” he said, “until we’ve come to the day when nothing is held back.”

To help stem the tide and return movies to higher moral ground, Coral Ridge Ministries, the church’s television/radio broadcast arm, is forming a for-profit corporation. Dan Scalf, executive producer of organization, said Coral Ridge will own a majority, if not all, of the stock in the company, and that most of the money will come from private investors.

“And at this point, it does not appear that (raising) the $13 million is going to be a problem,” he said.

As part of his televised appeal, Kennedy will tell potential donors that money sent in for the development costs are tax-deductible. Those who send in $50 or more will receive a videocassette of “Ben Hur.”

With the money raised by the ministry, non-profit Coral Ridge will purchase stock in the new for-profit corporation, which in turn will use $225,000 for the development of the script, Scalf said.

Scalf said the ministry is going into the film business with the same objective as established production companies: to make money.

Tim Penland, a born-again Christian who left his marketing consultant post with Universal Pictures last year to join the protest against the studio’s “The Last Temptation of Christ,” has been instrumental in teaming Coral Ridge with members of the film-making community.

Among the film makers who have agreed to become involved, according to Penland: production manager Wally Worsley (whose credits span decades and include “E.T.”); two-time Oscar-winning composer Al Kasha (“The Morning After” and “We May Never Love Like This Again”); assistant director Daniel P. Kolsrud (“Bird,” “Top Gun”), and production supervisor Fran Roy (“The Blues Brothers”).

“Everybody’s put their credibility on the line,” said Penland, adding that he will act “in an executive producer-type capacity” on the church’s first film project.

Penland said he will help oversee the selection of the property, watch over the production and supervise the marketing of the movie.

“We are determined to go through a major-studio distributor,” Penland said. “That’s one of the reasons we aren’t going to make a preachy film. We want to make a movie that will appeal to the widest audience possible--which means it will have entertainment value. But it will also have integrity, and it will underline certain important qualities. The idea is that this will be the first of many films from Coral Ridge.”

Kazanjian, whose current film projects include an adaptation of the popular Japanese comic strip “Lone Wolf and Cub,” said he is giving the Coral Ridge movie the highest priority.

“I happen to be a Christian. I also happen to want to make morally positive films,” he said. “I have three young children. I don’t want them to see gratuitous violence. I don’t want them to see chain-saw films. Or movies with heavy sex or drugs. I don’t want them coming home using some of the language that’s used in today’s movies.

“And I don’t want them seeing movies that will warp their minds about Christianity.”

Kazanjian said he never saw “The Last Temptation of Christ,” but doesn’t think it should have been made: “I think it’s wrong for any company to make a film that brings down anyone’s deity.”

Kazanjian said it won’t be as hard as people think to find spiritually uplifting scripts and added that by cleaning up the language and cutting one unnecessary bedroom scene, he believes the current hit “Rain Man” would fit the bill.

Whatever Coral Ridge settles on for its first movie, Kennedy said it will not be a filmed sermon.

“Our desire is not to curse the darkness but to light a candle--maybe a string of candles,” he said. “The title that keeps coming up is ‘Chariots of Fire.’ That’s the kind of uplifting movie we’d like to make.”

But, if there were more of those projects around like “Chariots of Fire,” wouldn’t Hollywood be making them?

“In that area,” Kennedy said, “I think it’s safe to say that maybe we know something they don’t.”