Friday, February 23, 2007

save me

This from CT Movies (Feb 23 2007)...

Though End of the Spear—a film based on true accounts of Christian missionaries—was a modest success at the box office, and even appeared on our Readers' Choice list, some moviegoers remember it primarily for the controversy surrounding its star, Chad Allen, a homosexual actor in a Christian production.

A recent Newsweek interview reports that Allen will be calling upon the experience for his next film—Save Me, in which a gay man is sent by his Christian friends to a therapy program seeking to help him overcome his homosexuality.

Allen's character in the film converts to Christianity, but he also finds romance with a fellow "patient." The movie is said to explore the contradiction he feels between his new religious faith and his homosexual feelings.

Newsweek reports that the film is being received "warmly" by Christian audiences who have seen it; CT Movies had a writer at the Sundance Film Festival, where Save Me debuted; the writer said the movie "seems to invite dialogue between the gay community and the evangelical community."

Allen told Newsweek that his experience with End of the Spear was not the motivation behind his involvement with Save Me—in fact, he says Save Me production was already under way when the controversy began. He goes on to note how, in making EOTS, he expected to meet only bigoted or mean-spirited Christians, but instead found "smart, God-loving, God-following individuals, who were doing what they thought was the most loving thing to do."

Save Me does not yet have a distributor or a release date.

No comments: