Always happy to cash in on whatever they see as the latest trend, The Weinstein Company has announced that they’re following in Fox Faith’s footsteps and forming their own faith-based distribution label to push Christian entertainment. Yes Bob and Harvey Weinstein are Jewish. That doesn’t mean they don’t like Christian money as much as the next guy.
They haven’t named it yet, but I’d like to suggest Jesusstein. Or maybe Wein-Christ? Christianstein? Jews for Jesus? No wonder they haven’t settled on a label. Weinstein and Christ just don’t mix.
What we do know is that they’ve signed a first look deal with Impact Entertainment to supply them with a steady stream of godstuff to make money off of. TWC will co-produce, finance, and distribute their projects. They’re also looking for other faith based partners to team up with for even more spiritual authority.
Weinstein eventually wants to release as many as six faith-based movies a year, but they’ll start off with two. Those first two movies to be distributed through Popestein will be an adaptation of the book The Penny and a movie called The Christmas Candle by a preacher/author named Max Lucado. They’re also planning an unspecified number of direct-to-dvd titles.
To sell Jesus, they’re gearing up a variety of creative marketing ideas. TWC will spend a lot of time courting pastors and preachers in order to convince them to push their movies. How long before this turns into the religious equivalent of payola? Record executives pay off radio DJs with cocaine. Can you think of anything illegal that might buy them a priest…
