Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious AmericaFollow

A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
Published: 4:53PM BST 11 Sep 2009

Creation, starring Paul Bettany, details Darwin's "struggle between faith and reason" as he wrote On The Origin of Species. It depicts him as a man who loses faith in God following the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter, Annie.

The film was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has its British premiere on Sunday. It has been sold in almost every territory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia.

However, US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".

Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of Creation, said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after On The Origin of Species was published.

"That's what we're up against. In 2009. It's amazing," he said.

"The film has no distributor in America. It has got a deal everywhere else in the world but in the US, and it's because of what the film is about. People have been saying this is the best film they've seen all year, yet nobody in the US has picked it up.

"It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America. There's still a great belief that He made the world in six days. It's quite difficult for we in the UK to imagine religion in America. We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the US, outside of New York and LA, religion rules.

"Charles Darwin is, I suppose, the hero of the film. But we tried to make the film in a very even-handed way. Darwin wasn't saying 'kill all religion', he never said such a thing, but he is a totem for people."

Creation was developed by BBC Films and the UK Film Council, and stars Bettany's real-life wife Jennifer Connelly as Darwin's deeply religious wife, Emma. It is based on the book, Annie's Box, by Darwin's great-great-grandson, Randal Keynes, and portrays the naturalist as a family man tormented by the death in 1851 of Annie, his favourite child. She is played in the film by 10-year-old newcomer Martha West, the daughter of The Wire star Dominic West.

Early reviews have raved about the film. The Hollywood Reporter said: "It would be a great shame if those with religious convictions spurned the film out of hand as they will find it even-handed and wise."

Mr Thomas, whose previous films include The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, said he hoped the reviews would help to secure a distributor. In the UK, special screenings have been set up for Christian groups.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html

Shame that lots of people are totally eager to vindicate this perspective of Darwin by turning naturalistic observations into prescriptive social theory. After hearing people, historical and contemporary, proximate and distant, peer and superior, conservative and liberal, cite Darwin as the inspiration for their draconian view on charity and social policy, I can understand why someone would think this.



Can't get that one though.

Maybe they need your brand of homophobic, conservative atheism. It's like Pepsi Lite. None of the religion but most of the bigotry.

It was directed at your face.

Edited, Sep 15th 2009 12:22am by Annabella

Ha,ha, your smilies are now impotent.

Really? I knew it was a low number, but I still would of put it in the 50's or the 60's.

Man am I ever moving to Europe. No joke.

This seems not entirely true. That is; I'm sure there would be protests and controversy, of course, but the most likely reason why American distributors are uninterested is because they think a film on such a subject will be too boring to appeal to enough audience to turn a profit. There have been plenty of other "sacrilegious" films that were released in the US despite protests.

Well sure, but a lot of the former enables the latter.

I bet Obama wishes he could move to Europe.

He must also be wishing he'd let that Palin bint and that old dead fart *win* the leadership of a country that seems to be the only place on Earth that is actually going backwards in time.


/golfclap

Edited, Sep 15th 2009 9:48am by paulsol

Not yet, give it another twenty or so posts and it should be there.

Darwin was a geocentricist?

I mean, I'm assuming he was but I don't think that's what he's know for...

Not Darwin.

61% of the US.

Edited, Sep 15th 2009 10:24am by Aripyanfar