{"id":18601,"date":"2021-12-13T08:14:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T13:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=18601"},"modified":"2021-12-13T08:14:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T13:14:10","slug":"fmc-headlines-starring-c-s-lewis-devon-franklin-and-curtis-sliwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/12\/fmc-headlines-starring-c-s-lewis-devon-franklin-and-curtis-sliwa.html","title":{"rendered":"FM&#038;C headlines starring C.S. Lewis, DeVon Franklin and Curtis Sliwa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h3><strong>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 12\/13\/21<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>No fantasy. Lewis is a box office hit.<\/strong> Following its surprisingly successful November 3rd opening night box office of over $1.2 million on 430 screens ($2,846 per screen average), <b><i>The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis<\/i><\/b> wrapped its limited theatrical film run (after four \u2018popular demand\u2019 extensions) on December 2 with receipts topping the $3 million mark. That&#8217;s a big number for an event cinema release. As a result, <strong>Fellowship for Performing Arts<\/strong> is now offering the biopic via Premium Video on Demand (PVOD) exclusively at:<u> <\/u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.CSLewisMovie.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>CSLewisMovie.com<\/b><\/a> through January 2nd<b>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4881046159MsoNormal\">\u201cThe film was announced with little fanfare. Expectations were minimal,\u201d notes FPA founder and artistic director Max McLean who portrays the older Lewis in the movie, adding \u201cThat changed as soon as the movie trailer went live and tickets went on sale. I was thrilled by how quickly the movie theaters responded and that they continued to show the movie for a full month! Now that the film has completed its theatrical release, we know that demand is still strong, so we made the decision to offer premium video on demand for viewing exclusively through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.CSLewisMovie.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">CSLewisMovie.com<\/a> in time for the Christmas holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s McLean talking about the film which chronicles the life of the renowned Christian author and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia\"><em><strong>Narnia<\/strong><\/em><\/a> creator with <strong>John West<\/strong> of the <strong>Discovery Institute<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Actor Max McLean Discusses His New C.S. Lewis Film &quot;The Most Reluctant Convert&quot; with John West\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/99qrTn8HgaE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Kingdom<\/em> come. <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2021\/12\/kingdom-business-yolanda-adams-serayah-lead-cast-bet-plus-gospel-drama-series-1234884581\/\">This from <strong>Deadline<\/strong><\/a>: <em><strong>Yolanda Adams<\/strong> and <strong>Serayah<\/strong> have been tapped to star in <strong>Kingdom Business<\/strong>, a\u00a0 music-driven drama executive produced by <strong>DeVon Franklin (Miracles From Heaven)<\/strong>, <strong>Holly Carter (The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel)<\/strong>, multi-<strong>Grammy<\/strong>-award-winner <strong>Kirk Franklin<\/strong> and <strong>Michael Van Dyck<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Written by John Sakmar and <strong>Kerry Lenhart<\/strong>, co-creators of <strong>Mr. &amp; Mrs. Smith<\/strong> the series, the eight-episode Kingdom Business explores the gospel music industry through the lenses of family, faith, love and the redemptive power of music.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>IMHO:<\/strong> The show sounds like an inspirational and faith-themed take on <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Empire_(2015_TV_series)\"><strong>Empire<\/strong><\/a>. <\/em>I see the potential for a breakout broad-based hit that should should probably air on<strong> CBS<\/strong> rather than the more niche <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ViacomCBS_Domestic_Media_Networks\"><strong>ViacomCBS<\/strong><\/a> holding <strong>BET<\/strong> as currently planned. I&#8217;d also suggest ditching the word <em>Business<\/em> from the show&#8217;s title<em>. <\/em>It suggests a note of cynicism that I doubt Franklin and the other producers intend or that its target audience is looking for.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>A Guardian Angel on a new mission.<\/strong> Last year, while running for mayor of New York City, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Curtis_Sliwa\"><strong>Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa<\/strong> <\/a>talked with me about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/04\/a-guardian-angel-runs-for-mayor-of-nyc-2.html\">how his Catholic upbringing laid the foundation for his lifelong commitment to serving the community<\/a>. After our conversation, he went on to secure the <strong>GOP<\/strong> nomination but ultimately lost to <strong>Democratic Party candidate Eric Adams<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, showing he intends to remain a player in the Republican Party, the maverick activist has set his eyes on flipping the seat of\u00a0 <strong>Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer <\/strong>in the 2022 midterms. Toward that end, he has launched a new Super PAC and website called <a href=\"https:\/\/saveussenate.com\/\"><strong>Save the Senate<\/strong><\/a> with the very direct and succinct message <a href=\"https:\/\/msliwapublicrelations.cmail19.com\/t\/j-l-zjrjrlk-yudktiljid-t\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Stop Schumer Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sliwa told the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/msliwapublicrelations.cmail19.com\/t\/j-l-zjrjrlk-yudktiljid-h\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">New York Post<\/a><\/strong> he plans to raise millions of dollars to defeat Schumer and promote a viable Republican opponent. Schumer, who he calls &#8220;the poster child on why there should be term limits,&#8221; was first elected in 1998 and is seeking a fifth term.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IMHO:<\/strong> Between the apparently deliberate stoking of social unrest, the politicization of science, hostility toward common sense election security, education policies that seem designed to promote shame, anger and fear of the future among young people (resulting in skyrocketing depression), out of control and inflationary spending, open borders, rampant crime, irresponsible foreign policy and the unprecedented power in the hands of multinational corporate media\/technology behemoths and online mobs, I&#8217;ve honestly have never seen national leadership worse than what we have right now &#8211; and I&#8217;ve been around for a while. Schumer is only part of the problem but he is, indeed, part of the problem. It&#8217;s time for him to go.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><strong><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up &#8211; <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 12\/13\/21 No fantasy. Lewis is a box office hit. Following its surprisingly successful November 3rd opening night box office of over $1.2 million on 430 screens ($2,846 per screen average), The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis wrapped its limited theatrical&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,9,10,11988,12,13,9990,7192,15,22,5375,24,25,26,5615,30,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-catholic-church","category-christianity","category-current-events","category-depression","category-education","category-family-matters","category-fear","category-freedom","category-history","category-media","category-mental-health","category-movies","category-music","category-politics","category-social-media","category-technology","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>FM&amp;C headlines starring C.S. 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Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18622,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18601\/revisions\/18622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}