This news article is important to me because I was the in it and it made the front page of the Gazette. This is also my first two categories in a row and my first two categories in a column on the way marking grid.
The full text of the article is copied from
Faithful head to ‘Narnia’
November 18, 2005 - 12:00 AM
By PAUL ASAY THE GAZETTE
Thirteen-year-old David Sutton (thats me) walked through the emptying auditorium at Focus on the Family, carrying a homemade wooden sword and shield.
He had only seen nine minutes of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” courtesy of a “super trailer” previewed at the Colorado Springsbased ministry Thursday morning. But his favorite movie, he said firmly, is “this one.”
Sutton, whose family attends The Gathering church in Colorado Springs, is a fan of the Narnia stories, a series of seven novels written by C.S. Lewis.
He’s also a volunteer with what he calls the “Ground Force Narnia Street Team,” a faith-based, grass-roots marketing effort (www.groundforcenetwork. com) to promote the film, produced by Disney and Walden Media, which is backed by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz.
Sutton’s a field agent in an evangelical effort to make a financial success of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” a classic children’s fantasy that retells the Christian Easter story.
Sutton was among more than 700 pastors, ministry leaders and fans who jammed into Focus on the Family’s Briargate headquarters for a twohour Narnia rally. Attendees watched the trailer and heard from Doug Gresham, Lewis’ stepson, and Christian music star Rebecca St. James. Afterward, attendees received free goodie bags.
Marketers are counting on Christians, particularly the estimated 70 million Americans who describe themselves as evangelicals, to fill movie theaters Dec. 9, when “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is to be released. Nothing would please these marketers more than to make Narnia a financial encore to Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.
Evangelicals might not need much encouragement. Christians have already embraced the movie, even though very few have seen the final cut.
Reporters were excluded from the preview, but attendees raved about the trailer and the faithful way the movie’s creators have treated Lewis’ books.
“It was incredible,” said Nathan Wagner, who works for Colorado Springs-based Youth with a Mission. “I was impressed.”
“I thought it was awesome,” said Bill Sawyer, who heads the Colorado Springs-based American Born-Again Believer Association.
“The movie will be as impactful, I hope, as the books have been,” said Jim Overholt, executive director for the Mission America Coalition, which sponsored the Focus preview.
Mission America is actively encouraging evangelicals to see “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” The group has sponsored or participated in similar previews across the country, though Overholt said the group rarely participates in movie marketing.
“We actually find ourselves happily surprised to be involved in a movie like this, so swiftly on the heels of ‘The Passion,’” Overholt said.
The movie’s creators are wary about “Narnia” being pigeonholed as a Christian film. “We want to get the word out to as many groups as possible,” Michael Flaherty, president of Walden Media, told The Gazette this summer.
But no one at Disney or Walden is discouraging Christians from embracing it.
To capitalize on Christian interest, Walden and Disney hired Motive Movie Marketing, the same company that promoted “The Passion,” to court evangelicals. Previews such as the one at Focus are a key ingredient in that push.
“It’s an interesting way of marketing,” said Longmont actor Mark Bechtholdt, who was invited to attend the screening by Motive.
Overholt said he hopes that churches will incorporate the film into their services and Sunday schools, and that its faith themes will give Christians a chance to chat about salvation with their more secular movie-going friends.
But he has another motive for pushing “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
“There is the value once again of demonstrating to Hollywood that there is a market for this kind of film,” Overholt said.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or pasay@gazette.com"