Orlando, USA - Maybe it's just a case of mixing prophets with profits; but in a host of movies this year and next, viewers will see the spirit made celluloid. Several related genres -- religious, spiritual, even fantasy -- are enjoying a boom that some call unprecedented.
On Oct. 13, theaters had One Night with the King, retelling the biblical story of Esther. Produced in India by the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the $20 million spectacle opened on 950 screens, including 20 in South Florida.
Friday will see the release of Color of the Cross, a daring portrayal of Christ as a black man. The same day marks the film debut of the best-selling book Conversations with God.
A pop musical version of The Ten Commandments, with Val Kilmer as Moses, is due out on DVD in November. In December, it'll be time for The Nativity Story, about the birth of Jesus, starring Keisha Castle-Hughes as Mary.
Next year, filmmakers will release Evan Almighty, a sequel to the 2003 flick Bruce Almighty; and Prince Caspian, the next Chronicles of Narnia movie.
"I think we're in a season in which people are open to exploring their spiritual roots in depth," says Robert K. Johnston, who teaches religion and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. "There's a new openness for film stories to help us define ourselves."
In troubling times
Why? Observers cite a litany of modern tribulations: 9-11, the war in Iraq, shootings in schools, storms and tsunamis, priestly (and Congressional) molestation, media plagiarism, corruption in churches and corporations.
"As our institutions implode, people are questioning traditional sources of wisdom and goodness," says Johnston, author of Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue. "There have always been movies that have wrestled with spiritual meaning, but there are more than of them since 2000."
In such times, Americans usually turn to houses of worship -- but not this time. Johnston cites studies that say less than 20 percent of Americans are in church each week, but they see an average 45 movies a year.
"There's no real sense of security anymore," says Jean Claude LaMarre, who portrays Jesus in Color of the Cross -- which he also wrote and directed. "You can't send your kids to school without some maniac entering with a gun. Church people are finding out their pastor is having sex with a kid or looting the offering plate. So people are trying to salvage a sense of hope elsewhere, including entertainment."
At least three streams are flowing through theaters.
Religion is a clear point in End of the Spear, last year's beautifully shot but emotionally thin missionary film; Facing the Giants, a surprising success produced by a church in Georgia; and the upcoming Nativity Story, a retelling of Jesus' birth from New Line Cinema.
Even fantasy movies go deeper than their predecessors. They used to major in sword and sorcery like Conan the Barbarian. Nowadays, we get the mystical -- and phenomenally successful -- X-Men and Harry Potter franchises, plus The Chronicles of Narnia, which will have its second installment, Prince Caspian, in December 2007.
Two fantasies with mystic overtones were among the top 10 movies last year: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, with young students at a witchcraft academy; and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, with both heroes and villains tapping into The Force.
Turning to God
In 2005, according to Christian film critic Ted Baehr, 58.4 percent of all movies had at least some "moral, biblical or Christian content" -- more than four times the percentage in 1991. Among the top 10 grossing movies last year, eight rated high on such content, Baehr says.
"There have always been films with Christian values, but there's now a growing number of films with overt, positive references to Jesus," Baehr says. "As the industry decomposes, every studio is focusing on the Christian marketplace."
Faith is decidedly non-churchy in "spiritual" films such as last year's Indigo, telling of psychic children; What the #$! Do We Know, a cult favorite on metaphysics; and Conversations with God, Neale Donald Walsch's account of how he found his inner deity.
The latter is the flagship movie for the Spiritual Cinema Circle (www.spiritualcinemacircle.com), a mail-order club that offers subscribers four films a month via DVD. The club's creator -- and producer of Conversations with God -- is Stephen Simon, who also did the 1998 film What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams.
He puts great store in the Circle's logo: a computer-generated image of a shaman telling mythic stories at a campfire. Like those age-old storytellers, Simon wants to supply modern people with stories about themselves and the world.
"We're looking for new myths -- films that ask questions about who we are and why we're here," he says. "When you see a typical Hollywood movie, or TV show or cable news report, do you feel good or ashamed as a human? We want to make people feel better about themselves."
Expanding the message
Color of the Cross, with its black Messiah, aims at another niche market: African-American audiences. Jean Claude LaMarre, its Haitian-born creator, wrote, directed and starred in the movie, a feature on the Web site www.black christianmovies.com.
"I believe race played a role in the crucifixion," says LaMarre, who thinks ancient Jews were dark-skinned and their Roman rulers were white. "But at the end of the day, the message of the movie is that color shouldn't matter."
Religious and spiritual films have been a constant presence in cinema, ever since the historic Passion Play was filmed in Bavaria in 1897. Others followed it over the decades: Ben Hur in 1908, 1926 and 1959, The Ten Commandments in 1923 and 1956, even Little Buddha in 1993.
"Spiritual" films, too, have their forerunners. In The Truman Show in 1998, Jim Carrey took charge of his own life. In 1993's Groundhog Day, Bill Murray had to relive the same day many times before he could learn life lessons.
Johnston even sees spiritual values in other recent films including Syriana, Cinderella Man, A History of Violence, North Country and Transamerica.
"They all try to deal with the shape of the human spirit, if not the Holy Spirit," he says. "They don't demand it, but they invite a thick reflection."
Cinematic spirituality: trend or fad? Part of the answer, of course, rests with the viewer. As films become more searching but less demanding, people will increasingly read more into them.
Johnston, the Fuller theologian, recalls a friend who was unsure whether to pastor a small, struggling church in Vancouver. He decided to accept after watching not a spiritual film, but March of the Penguins.
"He told me, `If God could take care of those damn penguins, he can take care of me,'" Johnston says.