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A movie called 'Faith Based' centers around two not particularly religious friends who decide nonetheless to make a Christian film because there is a lot of money in Christian film industry. Their Christian film has all the ingredients of a faith-based blockbuster, an astronaut who finds God and some space monsters and it is called "A Prayer in Space." With this film, the characters hope to earn a lot of money because they believe that Christian films are made with small budgets and they achieve big returns. The comedy stars Luke Barnett, who also wrote the film, and Tanner Thomason and the director of the film is Vincent Masciale.
The movie's plot has its grounds in real life. According to The Religion News Service, Barnett's character backs up making a Christian film by stating that "Christians support anything Christian." This is the similar argument that Barnett jokingly made to Masciale while they were pitching projects together with little success. Masciale on the other hand identifies as Christian and he wanted to create a parody about things that people regularly do. “It's not making fun of people that believe in something," Masciale said, as The Religion News Service reports. "It's more just kind of taking this idea that there are people who will believe something blindly, and there are people out there that will take advantage of those people.”
'Faith Based' showings were sold out at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival but not everyone is happy with the movie which has been criticized even before it was complete. For example, Fox News published an article about the future release of 'Faith Based' in which Dan Gainor, the vice president for TechWatch, business and culture at the Media Research Center, called the movie creators "Hollywood wannabes" and predicted that few people will ever see the movie or ever care about it. He also stated that media culture targets Christians as their favorite villains.
On the other hand there are those even from the faith-based film industry itself who are looking forward to seeing 'Faith Based.' Third Coast Content founder and CEO Ben Howard is a veteran of the faith-based film industry and he is the one that is not angry about the movie. “I believe that the skill or talent of being able to laugh at ourselves, poke fun at ourselves, is a necessary trait for life,” he said, as The Religion News Service reports. “And I think the Christian film business makes for great fodder — and I can say that as somebody who's lived in it for a long time.”
