Phil Cooke
Phil Cooke, a filmmaker and consultant, while hosting several discussions at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention stated that it is crucial for believers to engage in conversation with Bible stories whenever Hollywood releases a movie based on such narratives, especially with non-Christian friends and co-workers, despite the fact that some of the films may be inaccurate.
Cooke admitted that though Hollywood’s recreation of biblical stories may often be inaccurate, it is a good opportunity for Christians to share the stories with others. He explained that biblical themes have becoming more and more popular in recent Hollywood productions.
At the same time, the filmmaker and consultant for the media marketplace emphasized the importance of actually making “good” Christian movies by Christians. He said in an interview with CP, “…we need to get out into the mainstream world in that kind of media world where the culture is and really make a difference.” In short, he suggested that Christians should try to influence the mainstream culture which has such a powerful impact on our daily lives.
Recently, there has been a great deal of debate concerning the most recent Hollywood Biblical epic film, Noah. The main issue was that despite the fact there was not enough depiction in Genesis about Noah’s character and Hollywood had to fill in many of the gaps through their imagination, many Christian viewers, though interested in seeing the movie, were not too happy with the remade Hollywood retelling.
Hollywood executives announced plans for future biblical movies, one specifically focusing on the life of Moses, who may be played by renowned award winning actor, Christian Bayle, and directed by Ridley Scott. There have been past cases where movies with biblical inspirations have been great market successes, such as the Ten Commandments, Cook wanted the world to know that they can be both opportunities to share the Gospel, and misinterpretations of the Bible.
