Newsweek reports that major studios are taking a pass on serving as distributors of Mel Gibson's Jesus movie, The Passion:
"It's not worth the aggravation," says a studio head. "Even if it makes money, it's not going to be 'Titanic.'" Studios are worried about protests, hate mail and boycotts.
"Even if it doesn't deserve it," says another film executive, "it's going to be used as a political football."
That's all well and good, but the reason given is that the last time they dealt with a Jesus movie they ran into all sorts of trouble:
Some studio executives point to the last controversial movie about Christ as a case in point.
In 1988, Universal released Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ," which proposed that Christ was plagued with the same doubts and appetites as normal men. The movie was met with outrage.
"There were millions of letters written and 25,000 people marched on Universal," says Tom Pollock, then a top exec at the studio. "There were death threats against my chairman, myself and Marty Scorsese. There was security in our lives for years."
It's nice to get a window into the head of Hollywood: Jesus movie=The Last Temptation of Christ. Hey if the world didn't like that one, we'd better steer clear of any Jesus movie. Good thinkin'.
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