A new wave of religious films?
ABC is about to air the TV movie ''Judas,'' starring ''That Thing You Do!'''s Johnathon Schaech. ''There is a mainstream market for faith-based entertainment,'' says ''Judas'' producer Frank Desiderio. ''What we're seeing with 'The Passion' is fundamentalist and evangelical Protestants and traditional Catholics who typically don't go to the movies because they don't like the mainstream Hollywood fare. But they will go to movies with their stories.''
Earlier this week Disney announced plans to partner with Philip Anschutz's Walden Media to adapt C.S. Lewis' ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' for the big screen. (Walden has the rights to Lewis' entire seven-volume Narnia series -- a sort of Harry Potter saga with a Christian allegorical subtext.)
Ted Baehr, publisher of a guide for Christian moviegoers, has a similar message for Hollywood. ''Every week, you have 135 million to 165 million [Christians] at service. Clearly, if you can get some of those churchgoers to come see a movie, you have a tremendous influence. If you got one tenth to come, you'd have a blockbuster!''
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