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Mel Gibson was widely mocked when he ploughed £14 million into producing his movie on the last days of Christ - but he had the last laugh when it grossed more than $960 million at the box office.
Since then 20th Century Fox has opened its own Christian
movies division, FoxFaith, and Walden Media, owned by the devout Presbyterian Philip Anschutz, has funded the wholesome adaptations of CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia movies as well as the William Wilberforce anti-slavery movie Amazing Grace.
And today a team in London is launching a new production company exclusively dedicated to making Christian feature films.
Albion Productions, founded by church-going Christians David Fairman and Jon-Paul Gates, has received messages of support from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Catholic leader, and the Anglican bishops of Bristol, Bath and Wells and Ripon and Leeds.
It is now seeking funding for its first production, Darkness into Light, a story written by Mr Fairman himself of a modern day man propelled by a car crash back to 30AD to encounter Jesus.
It is an exploration of what he calls "the biggest mystery of all time - the Resurrection".
Albion Productions is offering a touch of philanthropy alongside the lure of big screen glamour.
"Investors will not only help to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world but 10 per cent of the film's profits will go to Frishta - a Christian charity which builds orphanages for Indian street children," he said.
"Films are an ideal way to reach the whole community. Many people won't attend church but you can reveal the Gospel to them in the cinema or through watching a DVD at home."
Mr Fairman was inspired to launch the new company after watching Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ which, despite being in Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin, turned Hollywood's expectations on its head by attracting enormous worldwide audiences after its release in 2004.
Many screenings were sold out with churches taking block bookings.
Its runaway success helped convince film-makers that this was not just a fad.
Disney, which distributed the first Chronicle of Narnia film, deliberately reached out to churches with special screenings of the adaptation of CS Lewis's obliquely Christian work.
David Fairman's previous work, often in collaboration with Jon-Paul Gates, includes three films, Cold Fish, in which a would-be journalist is lured into a world of violence and sexual game-playing, Lighthouse Hill, starring Jason Flemyng as a successful publisher who seeks the meaning of life after his best friend dies, and Messages, that was set in the spirit world.
"They are all films with a message and so is this," he said.
After Darkness into Light, there are plans to produce further work with a spiritual/Christian dimension for which Mr Fairman - like many in Hollywood - believes there is a market.
"Hollywood are looking to broaden audiences now. There's the audience for Pirates and gung-ho movies and action movies and rom-coms, but also they're discovering an audience for films with a message," he said.
The company is seeking initial funding of around £1.5 million and believe Christians may be willing to support them.
"This is probably the first time that anyone [in the UK] has reached out to the Christian communities and said, 'We're making a movie here, there are a number of advantages to you, but the main thing is you will be spreading the word of the Gospel around the world,'" he said.
"But the audience we want for the film is not just Christian, but non-believers and non-Christians."However, potential investors should note that not all recent ventures into religion have produced as spectacular results as Mel Gibson's.
The Nativity Story starring Keisha Castle-Hughes as the Virgin Mary failed to win the crowds for New Line Cinema last year.
- INDEPENDENT
