Rebecca Grace
AFA Journal staff writer
June 2007 –In mid-March, I received a phone call from my colleague at Grace Hill Media in California.
“I would love to have you come to L.A. and attend the Evan Almighty screening for faith leaders, organizations and press,” she said to me.
A week later I was at Universal Studios Hollywood to watch an unfinished cut of Evan Almighty, the highly anticipated comedy set to release in theaters June 22.
Its production cost of $170 million makes it the most expensive comedy of all time, but that’s not what all the hype was about.
“This is a very different movie,” director Tom Shadyac said to the group of ministry affiliates prior to the screening. “That’s one of the reasons why you guys are all here.
“You’re important to us. … We want to spread the idea of good news, and we want you to take ownership in what we’re doing,” he added.
The process
It’s not uncommon for a gathering of this sort to take place before the release of a major motion picture, especially if the film is being marketed to the faith-based family-friendly audience.
For example, my co-workers and I have been given similar opportunities to see advanced screenings of The Nativity Story, Cinderella Man, The Kingdom of Heaven, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Greatest Game Ever Played, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and others.
In fact, staging these screenings for a ministry-based audience is one function of Grace Hill Media, a public relations and marketing firm that aims to reach religious America, that being the 43% of Americans who attend church or synagogue every weekend.
According to their Web site, “Grace Hill is committed to making these Americans aware of entertainment which shares in their beliefs, that explores their values, enhances and elevates their view of the world and draws them closer to God.”
In order for the firm to do this, it is important to build relationships with ministries such as AFA.
Grace Hill and AFA became acquainted in 2004. Since then, the two organizations have been learning to work together in an attempt to accomplish each other’s goals. While Grace Hill seeks to engage the Christian community, AFA seeks to inform.
Therefore, Grace Hill provides AFA with opportunities to screen movies and conduct interviews with industry insiders. In turn, AFA provides Grace Hill with valuable feedback from a Biblical worldview about the positive and negative elements of a film.
Sometimes that feedback is then passed on to the studios, directors and producers in hopes they will come to a better understanding of what works and doesn’t work in a film targeted at the Christian community. Ultimately, AFA longs for this understanding to bring about change in movies and in the industry, but most importantly in the hearts of filmmakers.
The response
After watching a rough cut of Evan Almighty, I’ll admit that on the one hand, I was pleasantly surprised by the film. But on the other, I walked away discouraged by some of the movie’s content and most of all saddened by its false theology.
But I was both challenged and encouraged by the round-table discussions we ministry representatives had over dinner following the screening. I was able to share my thoughts on the film, hear the views of others and combine the two to process my response to Grace Hill, Shadyac and Universal Pictures.
I’m not at liberty to share a lot of details – specifically, my objections – because work is still being done on the film, and the final cut could be, and hopefully will be, different from what I saw.
In the meantime, I can tell you that Evan Almighty, sequel to the 2003 hit Bruce Almighty that grossed almost $243 million at the box office, was never intended to be a Biblically accurate portrayal of Noah and the Flood. Rather, it is a loosely based, modern-day interpretation. The movie is rated PG for mild crude humor and some peril.
My colleague at Grace Hill told me that Shadyac and his crew are back in the studio and changes are being made every day. What changes? I have no idea. I can only hope he is taking to heart some of my feedback and the feedback of other ministry leaders who attended the screening in L.A. 
