Faith-based films tone down religion, amp up star power Expanding audience

By Sandy Cohen

AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES

For some filmgoers, hearing a movie described as “faith-based” makes it a must-see. But just as many others find the term a turn-off.

To reach audiences beyond the Christian churchgoers that generally propel the genre, some producers of faith-based films are ramping up the star power and tamping down the evangelical messages.

The latest example is “Miracles From Heaven,” starring Jennifer Garner and Queen Latifah, which tells the true story of a 9-year-old Texas girl who inexplicably recovers from an incurable condition after surviving a 30-foot fall.

Among the film’s producers are pastor T.D. Jakes and preacher DeVon Franklin – the team behind 2014’s $100 million hit “Heaven is for Real” – who say they aim to make movies for all audiences, not just religious ones.

“I think sometimes when people hear ‘faith-based,’ to them that is code for preachy, that is code for more medicine, and it’s also sometimes code for lower quality, lower budgeted,” Franklin said in a recent interview.

“It’s the way people think when you use labels that is the barrier,” Jakes said. “It’s not necessarily the film, but the image that comes up in people’s minds ... It suggests a discrimination that was not intended. We didn’t do this film just for people of faith. We did this film for everybody.”

Other entertainment aimed at Christian audiences, including new films “The Young Messiah” and “God’s Not Dead 2,” take a more religious approach.

“Miracles From Heaven” is based on Christy Beam’s 2015 memoir, which describes her family’s struggles and her own crisis of faith when daughter Anna is diagnosed with an incurable digestive disorder, then has a potentially deadly fall. But after the mishap, Anna has no serious injuries and ultimately shows no signs of the disorder. She later tells her mom she went to heaven and talked to Jesus during the ordeal.

The film was released by Sony’s Affirm Films, the studio’s specialty faith division established in 2007. Affirm also released “Heaven is for Real,” starring Greg Kinnear, which is similarly based on a parent’s account of a child’s divine experience. The film had a reported $12 million budget and made more than $100 million at the box office.

Marketing a film as faith-based means nothing if the content doesn’t speak to religious audiences, said Maria Elena de Las Carreras, a professor of international cinema at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

“It’s a label, but it’s not magical. It doesn’t guarantee box-office turnout,” she said, citing Paramount’s 2014 big-budget Biblical flop, “Noah.”

Hollywood has a long history of Biblical blockbusters, from Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” to Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” to the currently playing “Risen,” also released by Affirm and starring Joseph Fiennes. But such big names haven’t traditionally been drawn to the quieter God-related fare.

Garner, who plays Christy Beam in “Miracles From Heaven,” celebrated the film’s Christian themes. “I wasn’t scared of doing a movie that had faith at its center, as long as it wasn’t preachy,” Garner told The Associated Press. “And doing this movie, part of that is talking about something that I’ve always held dear and close to my heart – I’m proud of growing up a little, good, churchgoing United Methodist girl, and I’m so proud of the film.”