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MOVIE COMPANY BUILDS A LINE OF FAITH-BASED FILMS Looking to provide entertainment for audiences that made The Passion of The Christ and The Chronicles of Narnia box-office hits, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has launched a new label, FoxFaith. "We're in the business of entertainment, not proselytizing," said Jeff Yordy, vice president of marketing. "We simply recognized that there was a huge, underserved audience and seized the opportunity to provide them with high-quality entertainment that reflects their values." The American Humanist Association immediately decried the launch of FoxFaith, saying the label's existence is "evidence of a deepening religious rift in America." Twentieth Century Fox has been distributing products through the Christian Bookseller's Association since 2002 and has sold more than 30 million DVDs and done more than $200 million in retail business. But the launch of FoxFaith this week marks the start of a label specifically designed to market faith-based entertainment. Among the Christian titles released on video by FoxFaith are The Passion of The Christ, The End of the Spear, Love Comes Softly, Woman Thou Art Loosed, The Visitation, and Beyond the Gates of Splendor. Besides overtly religious titles, FoxFaith will release "wholesome family classics" including Dr. Doolittle with Rex Harrison, The Sound of Music, Because of Winn-Dixie, and My Friend Flicka. The label has been building a network of churches and ministries to promote its films and said it sends information to 90,000 congregations quarterly and has 14 million Christian households in its database. Mel Lipman, president of the Washington-based American Humanist Association, said he is wary of Fox's strategy and fears it will cause further division among American factions already split by political and socio-economic issues. "While Fox has every right to exploit the gigantic conservative Christian market in the United States, this development needs to be recognized as a sign of our times and the latest in a divisive trend," Mr. Lipman said. "A growing number of Americans are living today in separate religious enclaves, separate worlds. And Fox, in pursuit of new markets, will now unwittingly cater to that splintering of our national identity." In addition to its home videos, FoxFaith plans to release between 6 and 12 films in theaters each year. The first release will be Love's Abiding Joy, the fourth in a series based on Janette Oke books, opening Oct. 6 in 250 theaters nationwide. Parent company 20th Century Fox, founded in 1915 and controlled by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, is an entertainment giant whose movie releases include The Devil Wears Prada, The Omen, Walk the Line, Kingdom of Heaven, and I, Robot.
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