Film about Charles Darwin lands U.S. distributor

Much tongue-wagging had been sparked by the fact that the Charles Darwin biopic Creation, starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as the scientist and his God-fearing wife, did not have a US distributor. Now it does: Variety reports that independent outfit Newmarket has picked up rights to the Jon Amiel drama, which depicts the personal torment that Darwin went through before the 1859 publication of his seminal work on evolution.

Rumours did the rounds that the film was simply too controversial for American audiences. Jeremy Thomas, the producer, declared earlier in the year that it was that the movie did not have a US distributor. "There's still a great belief that He made the world in six days," he said. "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."

Remarkably, the feature will now be handled by the same firm which helped make Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ such a huge box-office hit in 2004. Newmarket is reportedly aiming for a December release for the biopic.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/25/darwin-biopic-creation-us-distributor

Works amazingly well..

but then after much work on my own I did.

How would it appear if I put out press releases/etc before hand saying 'People in the US did not want to hear my truths, they are ignorant, I cannot even find a distributor there!'

Marketing ploy.

Not all of us, but enough of us...

would seem to confirm that they had difficulty in finding one.

Particularly poorly made boring films.

that generally would not sell well. I think the response this will receive from the fundie crowd will drive up ticket sales nicely.

The only reason I went to see "The Last Temptation of Christ" when it came out was to walk through a fundie protest and mock them. The fact that it turned out to be a pretty good movie was a nice bonus.

"The Prestige," and some other very interesting films:

Prom Night - Production Company 2008 1,424 $18M $20.8M $43.8M
The Nines - Distributor (2007) (USA) (theatrical) 2007 1,936 $29.2K $62.7K
The Prestige - Distributor (2006) (USA) (theatrical) 2006 203 $40M $14.8M $53.1M
Death of a President - Distributor (2006) (USA) (theatrical) 2006 9,692 $2M $167K $167K
God Grew Tired of Us (documentary) - Distributor (2007) (USA) (theatrical) 2006 11,823 $27.1K $276K
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story - Distributor (2006) (USA) (theatrical) 2005 7,495 $60.9K $1.25M
#1 Fan: A Darkomentary (video short) - Production Company 2005 93,239
The Amateurs - Distributor 2005 7,161 $10.1K $15.1K
The Chumscrubber - Distributor (2005) (USA) (theatrical) 2005 4,367 $6.8M $28.5K $49.5K
Rock School (documentary) - Distributor 2005 26,474 $28.1K $58.2K
'Donnie Darko': Production Diary (video documentary) - Production Company 2004 38,508
A Hole in My Heart - Distributor (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled) 2004 13,764 $1.72K $3.31K
Downfall - Distributor (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled) 2004 487 $24.2K $5.5M
P.S. - Distributor (2004) (USA) (theatrical) 2004 8,327 $18.7K $175K
Silver City - Distributor (USA) 2004 11,339 $337K $1.02M
The Passion of the Christ - Distributor (2004) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled) 2004 1,266 $30M $83.8M $370M
In Your Hands - Distributor (2005) (USA) (theatrical) 2004 38,230
The Woodsman - Distributor (USA) 2004 4,935 $54K $1.57M
Monster - Distributor (2003) (USA) (theatrical), Production Company 2003 1,343 $8M $86.8K $34.5M
Daybreak - Distributor (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled) 2003 33,990 $2.35K $6.36K
Stander - Distributor (2004) (USA) 2003 8,302 $19.1K $19.1K
The Green Butchers - Distributor 2003 11,592 $2.48K $2.48K
Old, New, Borrowed and Blue - Distributor (2005) (USA) (theatrical) 2003 56,866
Whale Rider - Distributor (2003) (USA) (theatrical) 2002 3,716 $137K $20.8M
Open Hearts - Distributor (2003) (USA) (subtitled) 2002 13,761 $14.2K $122K
Lilya 4-Ever - Distributor (2003) (USA) (subtitled) 2002 5,369 $33.7K $182K
Spun - Distributor (2003) (North America) 2002 2,616 $2.8M $15.2K $410K
Real Women Have Curves - Distributor (2002) (USA) (theatrical), Production Company 2002 8,374 $3M $184K $5.84M
Donnie Darko - Distributor (2001) (USA) (theatrical) 2001 80 $4.5M $110K $728K
Memento - Distributor (2001) (USA) (theatrical) (as Newmarket) 2000 212 $5M $235K $25.5M
The King Is Alive - Distributor

Not Paramount or Fox, but nothing to laugh at.

"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." I´m getting so tired of these statements which are usually made by Brits. Feigned astonishment.

Just like how they always complain that we did not have enough financial regulation in place prior to the crisis. And yet, the day after Congress passed the Sarbannes-Oxley Act of 2002, free-wheeling London was out touting itself as the place you could raise capital and not have to comply with this post-Enron legislation. The rest is history; London took much of the IPO and LBO business from NYC, and this brought about the British housing boom and subsequent bust. But it´s all our fault.

Just like how they always complain about our starting the Iraq War. Like old Georgie could have pulled off that feat without Blair´s enabling, which gave the whole operation a more civilized air.

Thank God the days of the ´Special Relationship´are over.

I'm a native born US citizen, and I am truly astonished by things I hear frequently from religious people. So I don't think the Brits have to fake it.

--imm

Ah, it is to laugh. As if such marketing gimmicks are an outrage. lol.

Fake controversy or not, he is spot on about religiosity in this country.

I googled ´London Evangelical Website´and got 387,000 hits. Most of the first couple of pages are links to the websites of Evangelic churches which I suspect are as whacky as their North American counterparts.

I live in Buenos Aires, which is full of them. Evangelical churches have sprouted around every train and bus station. A few months ago on Buenos Aires local TV, the head of Brazil´s Culture Ministry said that he was having problems finding places to air Brazilian movies in Rio and Sao Paulo, as the majority of movie houses in those cities have recently been converted into Evangelical churches.

Yet our British friend appears to think this movement is particular to the US, and feigns astonishment. Better to take a deeper look at the situation, and see all of its implications.

And you know, when a Frenchman complains to me about our country's errors, I listen with interest and respect, as they have generally been ´spot on´ (to borrow a phrase) with regard to their policies regarding war, financial regulation, consumer lending, economic growth, etc. But to take this constant harangue of insults from the Brits, of all people is just too much.

Yeah, that's EXACTLY what he / I said. EXACTLY! :rofl:

And no, he's not saying its only in the US... only that we have more of them. And we do.

I don't know why so many seem to have trouble with that fact. It's just a fact.

They have a fucking queen on their money, for chrissake! How anachronistic is that!!!

The point is religiosity... but I can see how defensive people might resort to taking pot shots at royalty to deflect from the main issue... which is the scary amount of uber religious people here.

I don't see religious nuts lining up protesting PBS, Discovery, Bio Channel, History Channel, Science channel...

It's about as controversial as banana pudding..

Until he puts out a sensationalistic press release designed to play to our "it bleeds it leads" media echo chamber...

Truth is distributors didn't think they could make any money on it, as in nobody would pay to see it.

Until it became a faux controversy, and the rubbernecker factor kicked in.

Yet the howling protests only come out for this guy.

It's fucking hilarious.

They say it in Latin and abbreviate the title, but I think that counts as a reference to God.

I wonder what percent of London residents consider Obama to be the Antichrist.

:crazy:

It was being protested before they'd even finished shooting! :rofl:

And what's the most successful R-rated film of all time in the US? The Passion of the Christ! :spray:


Yeah... nothing to his comments AT ALL! :crazy:

I did not hear Robertson or some other kook raging against this movie. All I heard was the media repeat "rumors" that the producers had propagated.

It's still hilarious seeing people here get so bent out of shape about a stupid gimmick.

For me, anyway. YMMV obviously.

They were fighting over them, counting the money...

This was a dead film nobody would pay for, he needed visibility, he got it. PR move..

Same thing for the other movies, PR people feed that stuff out and people eat it up with a spoon..

Publicity stunts are nothing new... and people usually don't get all outragey about them.

It's hilarious though, really... so please, do go on. :)

I think it's even more hilarious that people don't see through it.

publicity stunt? :shrug:

I know a bit about Charles Darwin's life and times, and with the right script I can imagine it would make a great movie. Maybe educate some people in the process. Can't wait to see it!