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The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006) - Page 2

post #31 of 41
10/7/06 at 3:06pm

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam_S
shrug,

pregnancy happens.
Not very often to unmarried, 16-year-old girls portraying a biblical figure on film.
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post #32 of 41
10/9/06 at 7:21am

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

Adam_S, I think your B.O. estimates for this are WAY high - unless the NL marketing team gets its act together, fast.

I have a good friend who is an evangelical. She is the target marget for this film. When I asked her about it a couple of weeks ago, she hadn't even heard of it. This is someone who was greatly anticipating The Passion 9 months before it opened.

This tells me two things: (1) Mel Gibson's marketing of his film to the US evangelical community was brilliant. (2) New Line doesn't have a clue how to do the same thing.

This is a pretty good trailer. It should be in theaters NOW, getting people stoked. I've not seen it, and I see a lot of films (and I live in the Bible Belt). I'll bet more people are aware of Night At The Museum than Nativity Story. Even more important, NL needs to get into the churches. Gibson marketed directly to the leaders of the evengelical movement, and they in turn spread the word to their congregations.

And yeah, I think the news about Castle-Hughes could hurt the film. It certainly won't help.
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post #33 of 41
10/9/06 at 11:38am

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig S
And yeah, I think the news about Castle-Hughes could hurt the film. It certainly won't help.
It can't hurt the film as much as it would if it'd come out that sh'ed had an abortion.
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post #34 of 41
10/9/06 at 1:24pm

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

Quote:
It can't hurt the film as much as it would if it'd come out that sh'ed had an abortion.
No argument there!!
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post #35 of 41
10/9/06 at 1:27pm

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

Somehow, I can't see this film doing big business. It looks much more boilerplate than I imagined, and much more like a typical substandard religious direct-to-video movie. I would not have expected this from Catherine Hardwicke. Obviously she's hampered by the story, which everyone and their grandmother is familiar with; Gibson transcended that problem by including many scenes not in the bible, creatively reinterpreting various elements (the devil), juggling linearity, introducing a language barrier, and basically showing what, amazingly, had never been displayed before- the actual experience of what a crucifixion is like. His film is rooted in offering a visual-audial experience (which goes back to the pure cinema thing I'm always chattering about), of being there, not just retelling the story everyone already knows. I think the great biblical films (Last Temptation, Gospel According..., Passion) assume the audience already knows the story, and then instead of regurgitating the plot, they build upon what the audience already knows and explores new territory. Of course, maybe that's what Hardwicke's film does. We'll see. Based on the trailer, I doubt it. I hope I'm wrong.

Regards,
Nathan
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post #36 of 41
10/9/06 at 2:04pm

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

With the disclaimer that I have seen neither the trailer nor the Passion, I would say the latter story (a bloody torture + crucifixion) lends itself far better to the type of filmmaking you advocate than this film's subject matter.

--
H
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post #37 of 41
10/9/06 at 5:04pm

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

Quote:
I think the great biblical films (Last Temptation, Gospel According..., Passion) assume the audience already knows the story, and then instead of regurgitating the plot, they build upon what the audience already knows and explores new territory.
From what I have heard about the film, I think this one does do that also. It's not just a plain retelling, but apparently does go quite deeply into how Mary would have reacted to this news. Often we hear the story told as though everyone just accepted what happened and was never bothered by any doubts, but in reality a person going through such events would be plagued with doubts and fears, even if they did believe. Plus there's possibly issues of society reaction to these events, or the impact that the deaths of all the newborn children, all that type of material, offering plenty of scope for a fascinating film that really does expand on the story more than we are used to.
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post #38 of 41
10/9/06 at 5:13pm

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam_S
shrug,

pregnancy happens. Evangelicals can get crazy about it, but it's less worrysome if it's not their own daughter. Besides, it lets them feel superior. If the marketing team spins it all, it should be along the lines of "everyone is fallible, and Keisha isn't as perfect as Mary was. And why are Christians of today trying to 'stone' her figuratively for the same reasons Mary nearly was, literally, back in the day?"

The trailer is fantastic. 60 million opening for this.

Adam:

Might you at least consider withholding judgment against "evangelicals" until they do actually start judging her?

Chris
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post #39 of 41
10/9/06 at 7:20pm
Thread Starter 

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

I apologize, I didn't mean to cast out that judgement in the manner hindsight makes it read to me now. it was in response to the initial posting and comments that this would kill the film with that audience. I was thinking 'the press' and wrote "christians" for that last sentance and had no idea, until you quoted it, what I'd written. I just looked back over similar emails to family passing along the trailer, and in those I wrote it the way I was thinking it. go figure, it's here that I 'misspoke.'

I honestly don't think it will damage the film all that much. The news didn't really hit the blog rags like MCN, Hollywood Elsewhere and Joe Leydon until today but what I'm seeing from them is barely concealed glee at the presumption this film will now crash and burn. And there is something else in their posts that comes across almost as hate for the story and film before it ever comes out. Polands post, while supposedly humorous, comes across only as childish, vicious, & spiteful. Leydon's really just says this is ironic, and is relatively harmless, but Welles' post is just disgusting.

Adam
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post #40 of 41
10/10/06 at 6:24am

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

Thanks for taking a second look, Adam.
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post #41 of 41
6/8/07 at 6:34pm

Re: The Nativity Story (Dec. 1, 2006)

Keisha with her new baby:
http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007...ucing_fel.html
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