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In the ranks of Christians making a difference in Hollywood, Craig Detweiler may be well on his way to a "lifetime achievement award." And he's just getting started.

Craig Detweiler

Chair of Biola University's Mass Communications Department, Detweiler is also a screenwriter (Extreme Days) and an author (A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture). He knows the many differing ways that Christians have either condemned, engaged with, or transformed an industry known for its spiritual bankruptcy. But he remains enthusiastic about Christians making their way into Hollywood. He loves the movies and their ability to provoke our minds into deeper spiritual inquiries.

Earlier this year, Detweiler hosted Biola's annual Media Conference. The theme: "The Deep End: How to Navigate the Open Waters of Hollywood." Christians in the industry gathered to concentrate their imaginations and efforts for a better future at the movies. At the conference, Detweiler talked to us about the state of Hollywood and movies.

What do you hope young filmmakers get from this conference?

Craig Detweiler: The goals for the conference are to gather all of the collective wisdom from people of faith who have been working in Hollywood, and figure out a way to impart that to the next generation. We're hearing from people who have been running a slow steady race built on excellence, ethics, and integrity—Ralph Winter, Mark Zoradi, Lori McCreary. They got to where they are by being great at what they do.

We called the conference "The Deep End: How to Navigate the Open Waters of Hollywood." One of the operative words there is "open." Ten years ago, people of faith might have been content to figure out how to get a foot in the door in Hollywood. They had adopted a defensive stance: "We're being attacked by the media. How do we defend ourselves? How do we get through a crack in their system?"

Now, the questions and the atmosphere have completely changed. Those waters are open because of Touched by an Angel, Joan of Arcadia, Bruce Almighty, and The Passion of the Christ. Hollywood has seen that there is a massive interest and openness toward spiritual things.

So this year, it could have been called the "Now What?" conference.

Detweiler: If the old temptation was to be defensive and go into retreat, the new temptation might be to be offensive, to be triumphalist, power-grabbing, and greedy. That's a whole different set of questions that we haven't dealt with before. We're basically trying to say, "Before it was all about how to be successful. Now it's about how to deal with that success and the larger, messier questions that often come with that." As St. Teresa said, "More tears come from answered prayers than unanswered prayers."

What kind of a difference can a person of faith make in Hollywood?

Detweiler: Ralph Winter's office has posters for all of his films. They'll have signatures from all of the crew. You'll see the level of appreciation. It's not like, "Ralph, hey, that was fun." It's like, "Ralph, I couldn't have survived without you." "Ralph, you made a difference to me when it mattered." There is a depth of respect engendered from the way he has carried himself.

It goes far beyond what happens onscreen. Christians are always interested in the output — they're so content-driven that they don't realize it's just as important how you carried yourself getting there. The power is in the interpersonal testimony more than the finished product.

Look at someone like Tom Shadyac. He has such a string of successes, with Ace Ventura, The Nutty Professor, and Liar, Liar, that when it's time for him to cash in those chips, he can propose a film like Bruce Almighty to the studios and they say, "Okay." He's earned that right to be heard. He hasn't put the message first, he's put the studios' interests first. And in that sense, he's been a faithful laborer in the vineyard and earned the right when it comes harvest time.

Scott Derrickson is another example. He writes a film like Urban Legends 2 for the studios. He writes scripts for Bruckheimer, for Scorsese. He did Land of Plenty with Wim Wenders. And he does a good enough job on all of his things that they say, "Okay, now it's your turn. What do you want to do?" [Editor's note: Derrickson directed the new horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which focuses on issues of faith.]

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