Hollywood Going by the "Grace" of God

When I was flying back from NYC yesterday, I happened to be sitting next to two people who were discussing possible for distribution and marketing partners for a film called Bonneville, starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen. They were crunching numbers and exploring a deal with FoxFaith, the studio's distribution label for Christian content. As we were flying, I wondered if they were thinking about Grace Hill Media as a possible partner. Grace Hill, an LA-based PR company that specializes in targeting America's faithful, is the market leader for reaching this audience. And as Mel Gibson's $600 million take from Passion of the Christ proved, there's a lot of money to be made from folks who want to see faith-based films. Universal is currently banking on Grace Hill's contacts with Christian bloggers and taste-making pastors will help it recoup investments on its modern-day Noah's Ark tale Evan Almighty, which opens this weeked. Almighty, from Christian director Tom Shadyac, could be the most expensive comedy ever, with some sources putting the production and marketing in the $200-210 million range (Uni claims they made the movie for $175 with no first-dollar gross deals). But Hollywood has certainly come a long way in understanding this audience since Christian groups were out in front of theaters picketing Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. Here's some info from Hollywood Wiretap about Grace Hill's head from a recent profile of the company:

Grace Hill principal Jonathon Bock cut his teeth working pics like "Bruce Almighty," "Elf," and "Signs." These days almost all the major studios are using the firm. (Bock, a deacon at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, got his start as and assistant to Mark Reina, a former senior VP of publicity at Warner Bros.) And studios are using Grace Hill for more than core Christian fare--family films like "Almighty" and "The Chronicles of Narnia." The company has also worked on "Walk the Line," "Cinderella Man" and the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.