Reel News has been reporting about the upcoming documentary Expelled and the controversy it's generated for weeks now, but we're hardly the only ones. Last week, Expelled was the most blogged-about topic on the Web, says BlogPulse, a Nielsen service.

Though the Ben Stein-narrated movie doesn't open in theaters until April 18, it has already become the most controversial movie of the year after noted atheist PZ Myers was booted from a recent screening of the film in Minneapolis. Associate producer Mark Mathis sees some irony here. "It is amazing to see the reaction of PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins and their cohorts when one of them is simply expelled from a movie. Yet these men applaud when professors throughout the nation are fired from their jobs and permanently excluded from their profession for mentioning Intelligent Design."

"I hope PZ's experience has helped him see the light," Mathis continued "He's distraught because he could not see a movie," noted Mathis. "What if he wasn't allowed to teach on a college campus or was denied tenure? Maybe he'll think twice before he starts demanding more professors be blacklisted and expelled simply because they question the adequacy of Darwin's theory."

Executive producer Logan Craft added, "We can't wait for all Americans, including our friend PZ Myers, to see the film when it opens. We'll even throw in some free popcorn for PZ if he'll tell us which theater he'll be attending."

While Dawkins, Myers and other atheists continue to speak out against the film, evangelical publications like WORLD champion it. Marvin Olasky writes that the movie "should be rated R not for sex or violence but for being reasonable, radical, risible, and right." He goes on to say that the movie is perfectly fair to Dawkins and his colleagues, and that the movie's comparison of "Darwinism's stifling of free speech" to Communism is legitimate.

Meanwhile, the Acton Institute says Dawkins and the movie's other detractors are being unfair to creationists, accusing them of failure "to educate themselves on the official position of the Catholic Church in regards to science."

In other movie news:

Josh Brolin cast as W (Variety)
James Cromwell, Elizabeth Banks also join Bush biopic

Sir Ian McKellen discusses The Hobbit (Coming Soon)
Actor likely to reprise his role as Gandalf

Director says Stop-Loss is not an Iraq war movie (IFC)
Kimberly Peirce denies that film is primarily political

Hindu leaders worry over The Love Guru (Associated Press)
Some fear the Mike Myers comedy will mock their faith

Diablo Cody keeps busy after Juno (Paste)
Oscar-winning screenwriter preps new screenplay, TV pilot

Will Smith eyes Egyptian epic (Sun Media)
Actor's production company prepares The Last Pharaoh

Pakistani protest over Dutch anti-Quran film (AP)
But Dutch Muslims appeal for calm in the storm

Barack, Hilary, and Brangelina (AP)
Obama, Clinton related to Pitt, Jolie

© Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

Read more  'News'

				Try 3 Issues of Christianity Today FREE! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Christianity Today as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

Subscribe to the FREE CT at the Movies Newsletter:    RSS Feed   RSS Help