House movie coming to DVD April 7

House the movie (based on the book by Ted Dekker & Frank Peretti) is coming to DVD on April 7th with a special cover for the CBA market.

According to Christian Retailing:

The DVD cover features an exterior shot of the old house in which the thriller is set, rather than the pentagram that was on the movie poster for its theatrical release late last year.

Lionsgate marketing manager Ashlee Meese said the special cover for Christian stores was an effort to address any concerns retailers may have about the film, whose restricted rating for "terror and violence" concerned the makers. They feared the R rating might limit the audience for the film, as Dekker in particular has a strong teen fan base.

Read our review of House the movie.
Read our interview with Ted Dekker.

Fox Signs on for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

According to Christian Retailing, Fox has signed on to make The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

The article says in part:

Fox--which was entitled to first crack at The Voyage of the Dawn Treader after Disney pulled out because of the shared Fox Walden marketing and distribution label--has made a commitment to develop the project. The two sides are still working out budget and script issues, but the plan is to shoot the film at the end of summer for a holiday 2010 release through the Fox Walden label, Variety reported.

Read the full piece here.

Read our review of Prince Caspian the movie.
Read our feature on "The Characters of Narnia".

Poster for Karen Kingsbury Like Dandelion Dust movie

It's looking like we'll see the movie based on Karen Kingsbury's novel "Like Dandelion Dust" sometime in 2009. It's classified as "complete", but no word yet on an official release date. Visit the official blog to learn more. The movie's been accepted into some noteworthy festivals.

Summary of novel:

Jack and Molly Campbell enjoyed an idyllic life with their adopted 6-year-old son, Joey. One phone call shatters their world when they learn Joey's biological father has just been released from prison and discovered a loop hole in the adoption papers and now lays claim to his son. He wants to start a new life by taking back his son. When a judge upholds the biological father's claim and Molly and Jack learn they must give Joey over to this brutal man they devise a plan. How far would you go to protect your family?

Read our interview with Karen Kingsbury.

Jenkins Entertainment to make Riven movie

According to Dallas Jenkins, Jerry's son and the co-founder with him of Jenkins Entertainment, Jerry's novel Riven is to be a movie.

Says Dallas at his blog:

"We've also decided that Riven, the book my Dad wrote that came out last year (and for my money, is his best book), is going to be the second film in the Jenkins/Pureflix partnership. We will be talking to screenwriters in the next couple of weeks and hope to be in production by the end of the year. I'm actually going to send a letter to Joe Eszterhas, the famous screenwriter of Basic Instinct, Flashdance, Music Box, and Jagged Edge, among others, who recently became a Christian. I know it's a long shot, but I think he'd be interested in some of the films we're doing. His books are incredible (any aspiring filmmaker should read The Devil's Guide to Hollywood), including his recent one, Crossbearer, which is about his conversion. Maybe Riven will strike a chord, or perhaps Youngest Hero, which is about baseball, one of his great loves. We'll see."

Read the rest of the blog here.

Read our review of Riven.
Read our interview with Jerry B. Jenkins.
Read our interview with Dallas Jenkins.

Dallas Jenkins article "Does Hollywood Love Christians Anymore?"

Filmmaker Dallas Jenkins (Midnight Clear, Hometown Legend) has a new article up at the website Big Hollywood entitled "Does Hollywood Love Christians Anymore?"

Says Dallas about the site:

If you have any interest in Hollywood, media, and pop culture from an inside perspective, and if you lean to the right, check out the new website from Andrew Breitbart, http://bighollywood.breitbart.com. Andrew ran the Drudge Report for a few years and is a writer/commentator who's guest hosted for Dennis Miller, Michael Savage, Lars Larson, etc. and is always a guest on various news and talk shows. The site is a collection of conservative Hollywood and media types writing about the business and pop culture from a conservative perspective. He invited me to write articles for the site, and my first article (Does Hollywood Love Christians Now?) was part of the site's launch. Check out the site, I think you'll enjoy it.

His piece begins thus:

After my first feature film Hometown Legend had been sold to Warner Brothers, I had some meetings with the WB marketing team in 2001. Near the end of their presentation, I said, “Now you know that this film has some faith elements in it, and my Dad (the executive producer) wrote the Left Behind books, so we could take advantage of his fan base and also promote the film to churches and youth groups.” After an awkward pause where I assume they were expecting me to explain myself, they had two questions: “What are the Left Behind books, and what are youth groups?”

Read the full article.

Read our interview with Dallas.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader a "No Go" from Disney

According to our friends at Narniafans.com, Disney has "jumped ship" on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Reuters & The Hollywood reporter say:

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” will have to sail without Disney.

The studio said Tuesday that for budgetary and logistical reasons it will not exercise its option to co-produce and co-finance the next “Narnia” movie with producer Walden Media.

The third entry in the series, based on the classic books by C.S. Lewis, was in preproduction and set for a spring shoot for a planned May 2010 release. The development puts the participation of the talent attached in doubt. Michael Apted was on board to direct a script by Steven Knight. The key players of the second installment, “Prince Caspian” — Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell — were to return for the third film. It is rare for a studio to pull out of a planned trilogy in midstream, but the number-crunching showed a franchise on a downward trend. “Lion” roared to $745 million worldwide. This year, “Prince Caspian” grossed just $419 million.

Read the full piece at Narniafans.com here.

House opening numbers

According to Christian Retailing:

House, the first R-rated Christian horror movie adapted from a book by best-selling writers Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker, had a modest opening in theaters at the weekend.

The film based on the 2006 Thomas Nelson novel took $355,000 in receipts at 363 box offices according to boxofficemojo.com, earning 24th spot in the chart led by Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which grossed more than $63 million from its debut at 4,000-plus theaters.

Read the full piece here.

Read our review of House the movie here.

The Note now available on DVD

Just in from author Angela Hunt regarding the movie based on her novel The Note:

"If you watched the film adaptation of "The Note" on the Hallmark Channel . . . or even if you didn't . . . you might be interested to know that "The Note" DVD is now available at your favorite rental place or to purchase at your favorite store. The DVD contains the film, of course, plus two "featurettes": interviews with Genie Frances and yours truly.

In the video interview, I was able to explain the parable of "The Note" more fully, and give the reasons why I wrote the book. If you rent or buy the DVD, please take the time to watch the interviews. I hope you enjoy them."

Click here to purchase at CBD.com
Click here to purchase at Amazon.com

Read our interview with Angela Hunt.

Jenkins Entertainment and Pure Flix deal

Jenkins Entertainment and Pure Flix are soon to announce a deal in which the two will produce a few films together. No word yet on the type of movies, but co-founder/Director/Producer Dallas Jenkins had this to say at his blog:

"Pureflix introduced me to a writing duo that is fantastic, two guys who had the exact same urge I had to go in this direction. Our primary objective is to make higher quality films than what the Christian market has provided thus far, and these guys can help us get there. If the films get better, hopefully the markeco-foundet will grow and mature, and we can really start to compete with what's out there in the mainstream."

Read our interview with Dallas Jenkins.

House movie receives R rating

According to Christian Retailing, the movie based on the book House by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti has received an "R" rating from the MPAA.

Says the article:

"The film was given the adults-only stamp by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for "terror and violence," making it the only Christian-themed movie other than Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ to receive such a rating.

Producer Ralph Winter said in a statement that the makers were "at a loss" when they learned of the decision, which was based on the general tone of the film rather than specific parts. They wanted to make cuts to win a PG-13 rating, but were told by the MPAA that "the whole story was just too intense."

Read the full piece here.

Read our latest interview with Ted Dekker.