Annabelle:  What’s the difference?

Peter:  "Narnia” is a wonderful story, but it’s not an evangelical Christian film.  We’re creating evangelical Christian films.  We don’t have a desire to make crossover movies, feel-good movies.  We want to make gospel movies.  We want to demonstrate the power of this system, the power of the church release, and leverage the studios to produce more films in this vein. And that’s an important cultural upside.  No one will leave a Cloud Ten movie without hearing a gospel message and understanding what it means. 

Annabelle:  But how do you make an evangelistic film without turning it into a sermon?

Peter:  Someone will ask, ‘Who is Jesus?’ and then someone else answers.  It’s a reality at the heart of the story.  In the past, the gospel message was often outside the story.  But in this screenplay and in the acting, Buck’s own struggle is to “stand still and know that I am God.”  That’s a spiritual message.  Even the believers in the film are still struggling.  Buck’s mad at God, Chloe’s in trouble.  But when he does stand still, he leads the president of the United States to Christ.

Annabelle:  Has the success of “The Passion of the Christ” changed how Hollywood views Christian films?

Peter:  I don’t think there’s a great relationship between Hollywood and Christianity.  We’re just two different.  Everyone thinks there is a big wide open door, but I just don’t think it’s the case.  We are basically not compatible with Hollywood.  There’s a little open door right now, thanks to “The Passion,” and it’s a great thing, but the core here is to do what we do.  If the studios want to do that and invest in it, it’s great.  But if we change the core of what we do to get them to invest, we’re [abandoning our mission.] 

But leave “The Passion” aside.  It was a phenomena, but it was an anomaly.  Mel doesn’t even have it on his radar screen to do another film like that.  The only big success in Christian filmmaking has been, from a business perspective, with end-time movies. 

Annabelle:  What can aspiring Christian filmmakers do?

Peter:  I would love to see an association of Christian filmmakers.  It’s stunning to me that we don’t.

Annabelle:  So what lies ahead for Christian filmmaking?  Not everyone can or should make end-time films.

Peter:  I think the future is extraordinarily bright if we meet a couple of criteria.  First, we have to work and play well together.  There’s still a lot of competition.  Second, we have to recognize that we’re the flavor of the month in Hollywood.  A lot of organizations are going to be burned.  Right now there’s this sense that Hollywood is changing, but I disagree with that.  Hollywood isn’t changing one thing.  Third, we need to put content ahead of all else, in my opinion.  What makes us different is that we have the ability to confront the culture and do evangelism. I’d rather make a $10 million evangelical film rather than a $50 million feel-good film.