While studios like Fox are busy trying to ramp up their production of entertainment marketed to the Christian community, Christian media moguls like David Kirkpatrick aren’t interested in seeking Hollywood’s favor. Instead, Kirkpatrick, a former executive at Paramount, wants Hollywood to come to him.
Last year Kirkpatrick, along with pollster George Barna and former E! network executive Christopher Chisholm, formed Good News Holdings with an eye toward developing motion picture and other mass media-related products for Christians. But while the company is currently based in Studio City, Kirkpatrick announced in the Boston Globe that he is pursuing building a major studio facility in Massachusetts.

With projects like the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Christ the Lord” and a deal with DirecTV to create a new channel, it’s not out of the question for someone like Kirkpatrick to develop such an extensive facility. Oprah created her studio in Chicago. Ted Turner created his in Atlanta. (For that matter Tyler Perry is producing his TBS series, “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne,” out of Atlanta as well.)
My colleague, Paul O’Donnell, seems to think that Kirkpatrick’s company won’t deliver anything remarkable. That remains to be seen. But what makes this development really interesting is that this marks the first time a group of Christians have enough clout to consider working–successfully–completely outside the inner sanctum of Hollywood on their own terms.