Is my movie screwed before I start!?! PLEASE HELP!

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itsastruggle

My movie has a character who is saved through the Catholic religion. This is symbolized through the use of a Rosary in the film. The only reason I chose Catholicism is because the character is Mexican and 80% of Mexicans are catholics and I like the way the Rosary looks on camera (shiny crystal beads that reflect light)..

My question is: will my movie suffer since it indicates someone is saved via Catholicism and therefore Catholicism is a true religion? Someone noted to me that "Jews do not like Catholics" and Jews control Hollywood. (This is not my belief, just what I heard.) I don't want my film to be blacklisted over Catholicism. I am not catholic and i disagree with a lot of what they protest about exuality and abortion. I also believe there are many ways to God and a person is not doomed by where they happen to be born.

Am I unnecessarily worried about this or should I change the religion of the character? I thought about changing the rosary to a plain cross necklace. PLEASE HELP!
 
First of all, Catholicism is not a religion, it's called Christianity. Any religious related film you make, will be under scrutiny by some individual. It is not a bad opening. Just remember you can't satisfy all of your viewers when it comes to religion.
 
Quality said:
First of all, Catholicism is not a religion, it's called Christianity. Any religious related film you make, will be under scrutiny by some individual. It is not a bad opening. Just remember you can't satisfy all of your viewers when it comes to religion.
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This is not a religious movie, though. Religion is a factor as it is in every film, part of the world of the play. You could replace the rosary with any number of religious artifacts and no other changes are needed. Catholicism is not referenced in the film at all, only visually. My concern is am I hurting the film by using the rosary? I thought about just using a plain cross.
 
Plenty of religious films are produced every year, especially through the Pure Flix production company. But they seem most often focused on the Protestant-born form of Christianity rather than the more tradition-heavy Catholic form. Most films that involve Catholicism to any major degree are dark exorcism horror films, or the occasional period-piece that involves Nuns or Catholic Priests and other higher ranking officials around some actual historical event.

But even with that said, I'm not sure why you let this small mention of "Jews control Hollywood" get you discouraged. A couple of savvy Jewish-born producers and businessmen may have started Hollywood all those years ago in the 1920s, but I'm not sure how many top executives are still Jewish now. It's not like the positions were passed down through lineage.

Besides, how big do you assume your movie will get? Are you really so worried that you think some Jewish executive is going to shoot down your movie and not let it rise to whatever height it was supposed to? This shouldn't be something you have to concern yourself with. Plenty of movies build stories off of faith, and plenty will build it around someone being saved by their faith. They may be less common than movies that don't involve faith and religion as heavily, but they're still out there quite frequently. I wouldn't let it get to you.
 
Money controls Hollywood not religion, so don't worry about affiliations.

Write for your character. This is not pushing religion, or a doc. This is a character in a film, and it seems you were on the right track writing what makes most sense for him and his culture.
 
I think you are worrying too much. I have never walked out of a movie because of the presentation of a certain religion nor have I ever noticed anyone else to. I think you are just being true to the character.
 
If your movie is about Catholics, then it's by default, about Catholicism. "Catholicism" is the term for Christian beliefs and practices followed by Catholics. Catholicism does not apply to Methodists, Lutheran, Moravian, or "Christian" reformed churches. So any movie that deals with Catholics or Catholicism WILL be a "religion based" movie. And a Roman Catholic rosary (54 plus 5 stones) is used SOLELY by Catholics and not the same thing as "prayer beads". BTW, the rosary is not a necklace... unless your character is a cholo, don't have them wearing it. And it has nothing to do with "haters", but the rosary is only used to pray to Mary, Queen of Angels. Catholics take that VERY seriously, and they're 25% of your audience.
 
A couple quick points...

itsastruggle said:
Someone noted to me that "Jews do not like Catholics" and Jews control Hollywood. (This is not my belief, just what I heard.) I don't want my film to be blacklisted over Catholicism.
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False. "Godfather". Next.

itsastruggle said:
Religion is a factor as it is in every film, part of the world of the play.
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False. And kind of a scary perspective.

Moving on...

itsastruggle said:
I am not catholic and i disagree with a lot of what they protest about exuality and abortion. I also believe there are many ways to God and a person is not doomed by where they happen to be born.

Am I unnecessarily worried about this
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Yes, in your real life it seems.

That aside if you are going to use a mythology/religion, and you want to do the contemporary christianity thing, I'd go Catholic as well. They're the original, powerful, steeped in mystery. Oh, they have their own city-state too.

Also, just for clarification, is the rosary going to be used as a martial arts "soft" weapon, like a rope dart? If so PM me, I already have that registered with the WGA.


moviebuffy said:
I think you are worrying too much. I have never walked out of a movie because of the presentation of a certain religion nor have I ever noticed anyone else to.
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Actually this does happen, sometimes quite notably. But I agree it's not even worth a second thought from the storyteller perspective.
 
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Guanto said:
Also, just for clarification, is the rosary going to be used as a martial arts "soft" weapon, like a rope dart? If so PM me, I already have that registered with the WGA.
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This is interesting to me. Are you saying that no one can use
the Rosary as a martial arts "soft" weapon, like a rope dart
because you have registered that specific use with the WGA?

Or am I misreading your clarification?
 
directorik said:
This is interesting to me. Are you saying that no one can use
the Rosary as a martial arts "soft" weapon, like a rope dart
because you have registered that specific use with the WGA?

Or am I misreading your clarification?
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While part of my job is to be interesting (thanks btw), it was indeed a misread. Think more along the lines of humor and sarcasm... as well as me being deeply sardonic about the bigger picture of the topic. The post went from a sincere concern (or at least posturing as such) about being blacklisted because of something as benign as a couple shots of a rosary, to strange theological declarations, and then suddenly to the sacred object of concern being tossed around to bash the skulls in of endless waves of mooks in gi's. Come on, that's funny. Brilliant? Well...

...Since you inquired. The unique weapon, of my own creation, in question is actually the deadly serious focal point of a Metroidvania game I have in development entitled "ARMY OF NUN". The rosary, besides being a powerful meteor hammer, is also a swingline and the beads actually act as a hitpoint indicator. As they diminish (each bead physically disappearing) so does your life, your reach and your striking power.

Now, to bring it back around...

WGA is horrible for protecting an "idea" or concept, they really can't. What it is good for is if say you were working closely with someone on a project and then things trail off. Then one day you suddenly see your story unfolding in some medium with people you were loosely related to when working on it back in the day. Now you actually have a case. Not that this actually happened *whistles, looks up, twiddles thumbs, taps foot*. Anyway, just a roundabout way of saying the WGA is great in handling writing credit disputes, but its protection value starts to nosedive after that.
 
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itsastruggle said:
My movie has a character who is saved through the Catholic religion. This is symbolized through the use of a Rosary in the film. The only reason I chose Catholicism is because the character is Mexican and 80% of Mexicans are catholics and I like the way the Rosary looks on camera (shiny crystal beads that reflect light)..

My question is: will my movie suffer since it indicates someone is saved via Catholicism and therefore Catholicism is a true religion? Someone noted to me that "Jews do not like Catholics" and Jews control Hollywood. (This is not my belief, just what I heard.) I don't want my film to be blacklisted over Catholicism. I am not catholic and i disagree with a lot of what they protest about exuality and abortion. I also believe there are many ways to God and a person is not doomed by where they happen to be born.

Am I unnecessarily worried about this or should I change the religion of the character? I thought about changing the rosary to a plain cross necklace. PLEASE HELP!
Click to expand...

I'm Catholic. I've never heard this idea that "Jews do not like Catholics". More importantly, the stereotype that Hollywood is controlled by Jews is horribly bigoted and entirely unfounded. No, your film will not be blacklisted for employing themes of Christianity.

Christian Films are incredibly successful. And even if a film isn't Christian, per se, that faith is way over-represented in Hollywood productions.

You're fine. Continue on with your story. :)

Quality said:
First of all, Catholicism is not a religion, it's called Christianity. Any religious related film you make, will be under scrutiny by some individual. It is not a bad opening. Just remember you can't satisfy all of your viewers when it comes to religion.
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Uhhh, Catholicism is definitely a religion. There are many different sects of Christianity, and each one of them is a perfectly legitimate religion. Nobody has any right to tell anyone else that their religion isn't a religion.

That being said, I agree with your point that you can't satisfy all of your viewers when it comes to religion. The OP should just make the movie they want to make.

itsastruggle said:
I am not catholic
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Then it'd probably be a good idea for you to put some research into what it's like to be Catholic. Specifically, what's it like to be a Mexican Catholic. Though the Catholic faith does have a government-like hierarchy and there is only one Catholic faith, because it is so widespread, each local variation can manifest itself in forms that are very different from the way that Catholicism exists in different parts of the world.
 
Cracker Funk said:
..........
Then it'd probably be a good idea for you to put some research into what it's like to be Catholic. Specifically, what's it like to be a Mexican Catholic. Though the Catholic faith does have a government-like hierarchy and there is only one Catholic faith, because it is so widespread, each local variation can manifest itself in forms that are very different from the way that Catholicism exists in different parts of the world.
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This is very true.
There is a lot of diversitiy around the world.
 
I think the gist here is:
 

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