Exploring Tim Burton’s Imagination:
October 16, 2012

Behind the Scenes of FRANKENWEENIE By Evy Baehr, Associate Editor Tim Burton’s newest film, FRANKENWEENIE, is coming out Friday. The movie is about a boy, Victor, and his love for his dog, Sparky. When Sparky dies suddenly, Victor is crushed, but is able to do a science experiment and spark Sparky back to life. MOVIEGUIDE® had the chance to interview some of the cast and crew. Writer/Director Tim Burton Q:  This movie obviously took you back to your Burbank neighborhood. Why has it stayed with you? Tim Burton:  Yeah, I think any place where you are from it is part of your life. You don’t have to go look at the specifics, it’s just more like the memory of it. That was the interesting thing about this project, u...

Movieguide Russia
October 16, 2012

Christian Media Evangelist Teaches for Second Time in Russia Hollywood, Calif. – Christian media evangelist and family advocate Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission® (CFTVC), is speaking for the second time this year in Russia. Beginning Friday, Dr. Baehr has spoken in four cities there, including Moscow, Rostov, Uglich, and Vologda. Monday, he attended the opening of the Russian Film Festival in Rostov, where he showed FOR GREATER GLORY, the movie about the Catholic uprising in the 1920s against a Mexican socialist tyrant. “Who would have thought that Russia would be asking for media and cultural wisdom from a Christ-centered, Gospel oriented perspective?” Dr. Bae...

Blessed by God
October 16, 2012

Blessed by God: Faith-Based Kairos Scriptwriting Contest Changes Lives The $50,000 Kairos Prize Competition for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays, now in its eighth year, isn’t just changing Hollywood. It’s also changing the personal lives of the winners. A case in point is Christina Denton of Martinsville, Va., the 2009 Grand Prize Winner for her script A MATTER OF TIME. Christina felt the call to write a screenplay, something she had never attempted before in her life. She submitted her script to the Kairos Prizes for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays presented by MOVIEGUIDE® and supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Even though her own husband thought she was wasting her time, Christina, a committed...

DREAMWORKS Announces 12 More!
October 16, 2012

By Evy Baehr, associate editor of MOVIEGUIDE® At the Toronto Film Festival, DREAMWORKS announced their upcoming 12 movies. The films include some unexpected cast members, including Seth Rogen in BUREAU OF OTHERWORDLY OPERATIONS. Though he has done animated movies before, Seth is know mostly as a bit of a wild cat, doing films like KNOCKED UP and SUPERBAD, so this is a pleasant turn. Another pleasant thought is that Dreamworks is planning to do three films a year for the next four years. This year, Dreamworks is releasing MADAGASCAR 3 and the RISE OF THE GUARDIANS. GUARDIANS comes out in November. Other popular Dreamworks franchises have been extended to include HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, KUNG FU PANDA 3, and THE PENGUINS OF MADA...

Becoming a Father to the Fatherless:
October 16, 2012

Becoming a Father to the Fatherless: Behind the Scenes of UNCONDITIONAL By Evy Baehr, Associate Editor UNCONDITIONAL is a drama following the works of Papa Joe Bradford, a man who has helped at-risk children. Papa Joe has started a ministry called Elijah’s Heart that helps underprivileged children and their families. Movieguide® had an opportunity to speak with Papa Joe: MG:  How much of the movie was based on your life? A:  Ninety something percent of what you see concerning Papa Joe is actually pretty true to form. It was pretty close to what happened. Pretty true. The creative license was taken with my wife Denise. We were actually married when we moved to the projects. MG:  Did they approach you about ...

ObamaCare Propaganda
October 16, 2012

ObamaCare Propaganda Coming Soon to a Television Near You By David Outten The state of California has recently set up an "exchange" to promote ObamaCare and has hired Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide for $900,000 to encourage programs like GRAY'S ANATOMY and MODERN FAMILY to help sell the health care law. According Tim Graham of NewsBusters.org, Peter V. Lee, the director of California's exchange said, “I’d like to see 10 of the major TV shows, or telenovelas, have people talking about ‘that health insurance thing. There are good story lines here.” On MEET THE PRESS, Vice President Joe Biden recently congratulated WILL & GRACE for swinging public opinion in favor of gay marriage. In 1972, MAUDE was credited with ad...

Scriptwriting Classes at MOVIEGUIDE®
October 16, 2012

By Evy Baehr, Associate Editor MOVIEGUIDE® believes that story is the foundation of filmmaking. Create a great story and you will have a great film, but how do you go about that? Well, we will teach you! Each year in our Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry, we are able to tally up the obscenities, profanities, nudity, etc., and worldviews in each movie that comes out that year. From this we see what makes more money at the box office. Over the years, we have found that movies with more Christian content and less cursing do much better. Taking these figures, we are able to find out just exactly what you should put in your screenplay in order to get the best results at the box office and influence the world for the bett...

Riveting and Impressive: Ted Baehr’s Intensive Four-Day Filmmaking Class at MOVIEGUIDE®
October 16, 2012

By Joann Cole Webster, VP, ChristianMensNetwork.com “The most powerful thing you can do in life is to create an image. The next most powerful thing you can do is to destroy an image.” Stories are the building blocks of history. The Bible was first a story before it was put it into a book. The stories handed down to us, oral or written, and visually spread across the canvas of our minds, shape culture and provoke action, for good or for evil. For years, I have looked for ways to tell stories. I have written 45 non-fiction books, but my passion has been the story, not just the lesson of the story. To move into fictional storytelling, I have attended many seminars plus courses at major universities like Stanford, Southern Methodis...

Child Friendly Horror Movies – Is There Such a Thing?
October 16, 2012

By Amy Swanson, Contributing Writer They’re coming. Over the next few months, parents are going to see an onslaught of horror based movies that are aimed directly at their children. PARANORMAN, FRANKENWEENIE and HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, may look like harmless humor horror for the harvest season, but represent more than just the Halloween creep. These movies desensitize our children to even more satanic evil and violence that they will see on the big screen later in life. Over the past few years, Dr Baehr and the Christian Film & Television Commission® have been making inroads. The transformation of Hollywood towards a more God respecting attitude has been seen in movies like THE BLIND SIDE, THE AVENGERS, PIRATES OF THE CARRIBBEAN 4:&n...

Cirque du Soleil ‘Iris’ Modern Circus Creates Beauty
October 16, 2012

By Evy Baehr, associate editor of MOVIEGUIDE® Cirque du Soleil presents IRIS in the Dolby Theater in the heart of Hollywood. With incredible talent, the performers fly through the air and try to create a story based on the history of film. IRIS intertwines movie history and incredible acrobatics. As is Cirque du Soleil fashion, the show has increments of the circus, including the clowns, acrobats soaring through the air, contortionists, trapeze, and trampoline acts. These acts are done in a superb manner. Two twin acrobats fly through the air right above the head of the audiences. Contortionists literally contort their bodies in ways the audience would never have thought possible. These acts resemble the circus and chop up the o...