Fox Faith: Is It Working?It's been an up-and-down first year for Hollywood's first major "Christian" film label, with box office busts offset by strong video sales and rentals.by Mark Moring |
posted 10/09/2007
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After initially blitzing the market with five theatrical releases in their first six months of existence—"We came out swinging," said Bixler—no Fox Faith films have been in theaters since The Ultimate Gift in March. And no more are planned until 2008.
Meanwhile, the Fox Faith website has been static for some five months; at this writing, it still says The Redemption of Sarah Cain and The Final Inquiry are "coming soon"—though the former has already come and gone (on TV) and the latter won't come out till 2008. The website's link to the Fox Faith Film Club now yields a page that says that the club "has been shut down. No further information is available at this time."
Additionally, a publicist hired by Fox, who had been constantly working projects in the label's first six months, has been uncharacteristically quiet in more recent months.
Just fine despite the signs
Despite all those apparent signs, Feldstein and Bixler said the label has been humming along just fine, though at a lower profile. They noted strong sales and rentals at video, especially with The Ultimate Gift and Thr3e.
Bixler offered explanations for the other apparent warning signs—the lack of theatrical releases and the dead website. He said Fox Faith had planned to avoid holiday and summer theatrical releases so as not to compete with the parent company: "Big Fox had always said we need to get out of the way. They don't want us taking up theaters, so we knew we'd have no theatrical releases from May to September."
As for the website, "We've had a problem with it, and it went down for [a while]. But we weren't too concerned about it because we didn't have anything to announce that was pressing." He said he hopes the website is updated soon.
Feldstein said the future of the brand looks good: "Fox Faith has been primarily aimed at the Christian marketplace here in the States, and that's its continued focus. We've got fourteen films in various stages of production that are coming up, some based on popular authors, others of a gospel theme. We've got a very healthy lineup of product coming."
One film just starting production is Jake's Run, to be made by Michael Landon Jr. and Brian Bird's Believe Pictures studio (The Last Sin Eater, Sarah Cain). The film is based on the true story of Jake Porter, a mentally challenge high school student who was allowed to run for a touchdown in a football game, a heartwarming tale that made the news in 2002. Another film in production is Like Dandelion Dust, based on the book by Karen Kingsbury.
The next two films in the Love Comes Softly series, Love's Unending Legacy, hits video in December, while Love's Unfolding Dream will release to video sometime in 2008.
The Final Inquiry, a made-for-TV movie in Italy (original title: L'Inchiesta), was one of those long listed as "coming soon" on the Fox Faith website, but Bixler says it will have a "small theatrical" release in January 2008, followed by video at Easter.
And Bixler announced that Fox Faith recently picked up the Angel Wars children's videos, with intent to produce episodes 4-6 and an eye to possibly doing a feature film in the future.
"We're alive and well," said Feldstein. "Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. We're the new Mark Twain."
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