A New Screen Test for Imax: It's the Bible vs. the Volcano

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

March 19, 2005

A New Screen Test for Imax: It's the Bible vs. the Volcano
By CORNELIA DEAN 
 

 he fight over evolution has reached the big, big screen.

Several Imax theaters, including some in science museums, are refusing to
show movies that mention the subject - or the Big Bang or the geology of the
earth - fearing protests from people who object to films that contradict
biblical descriptions of the origin of Earth and its creatures.

The number of theaters rejecting such films is small, people in the industry
say - perhaps a dozen or fewer, most in the South. But because only a few
dozen Imax theaters routinely show science documentaries, the decisions of a
few can have a big impact on a film's bottom line - or a producer's decision
to make a documentary in the first place.

People who follow trends at commercial and institutional Imax theaters say
that in recent years, religious controversy has adversely affected the
distribution of a number of films, including "Cosmic Voyage," which depicts
the universe in dimensions running from the scale of subatomic particles to
clusters of galaxies; "Galápagos," about the islands where Darwin theorized
about evolution; and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea," an underwater epic about
the bizarre creatures that flourish in the hot, sulfurous emanations from
vents in the ocean floor.

"Volcanoes," released in 2003 and sponsored in part by the National Science
Foundation and Rutgers University, has been turned down at about a dozen
science centers, mostly in the South, said Dr. Richard Lutz, the Rutgers
oceanographer who was chief scientist for the film. He said theater
officials rejected the film because of its brief references to evolution, in
particular to the possibility that life on Earth originated at the undersea
vents.

Carol Murray, director of marketing for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and
History, said the museum decided not to offer the movie after showing it to
a sample audience, a practice often followed by managers of Imax theaters.
Ms. Murray said 137 people participated in the survey, and while some
thought it was well done, "some people said it was blasphemous."

 In their written comments, she explained, they made statements like "I
really hate it when the theory of evolution is presented as fact," or "I
don't agree with their presentation of human existence."

 On other criteria, like narration and music, the film did not score as well
as other films, Ms. Murray said, and over all, it did not receive high
marks, so she recommended that the museum pass.

 "If it's not going to draw a crowd and it is going to create controversy,"
she said, "from a marketing standpoint I cannot make a recommendation" to
show it.

 In interviews, officials at other Imax theaters said they had similarly
decided against the film for fear of offending some audiences.

 "We have definitely a lot more creation public than evolution public," said
Lisa Buzzelli, who directs the Charleston Imax Theater in South Carolina, a
commercial theater next to the Charleston Aquarium. Her theater had not
ruled out ever showing "Volcanoes," Ms. Buzzelli said, "but being in the
Bible Belt, the movie does have a lot to do with evolution, and we weigh
that carefully."

Pietro Serapiglia, who handles distribution for the producer Stephen Low of
Montreal, whose company made the film, said officials at other theaters told
him they could not book the movie "for religious reasons," because it had
"evolutionary overtones" or "would not go well with the Christian community"
or because "the evolution stuff is a problem."

Hyman Field, who as a science foundation official had a role in the
financing of "Volcanoes," said he understood that theaters must be
responsive to their audiences. But Dr. Field he said he was "furious" that a
science museum would decide not to show a scientifically accurate
documentary like "Volcanoes" because it mentioned evolution.

 "It's very alarming," he said, "all of this pressure being put on a lot of
the public institutions by the fundamentalists."

 People who follow the issue say it is more likely to arise at science
centers and other public institutions than at commercial theaters. The
filmmaker James Cameron, who was a producer on "Volcanoes," said the
commercial film he made on the same topic, "Aliens of the Deep," had not
encountered opposition, except during post-production, when "it was
requested from some theaters that we change a line of dialogue" relating to
sun worship by ancient Egyptians. The line remained, he said.

 Mr. Cameron said he was "surprised and somewhat offended" that people were
sensitive to the references to evolution in "Volcanoes."

"It seems to be a new phenomenon," he said, "obviously symptomatic of our
shift away from empiricism in science to faith-based science."

 Some in the industry say they fear that documentary filmmakers will steer
clear of science topics likely to offend religious fundamentalists.

 Large-format science documentaries "are generally not big moneymakers,"
said Joe DeAmicis, vice president for marketing at the California Science
Center in Los Angeles and formerly the director of its Imax theater. "It's
going to be hard for our filmmakers to continue to make unfettered
documentaries when they know going in that 10 percent of the market" will
reject them.

 Others who follow the issue say many institutions are not able to resist
such pressure.

 "They have to be extremely careful as to how they present anything relating
to evolution," said Bayley Silleck, who wrote and directed "Cosmic Voyage."
Mr. Silleck said he confronted religious objections to that film and
predicted he would face them again with a project he is working on now,
about dinosaurs.

Of course, a number of factors affect a theater manager's decision about a
movie. Mr. Silleck said an Imax documentary about oil fires in Kuwait "never
reached its distribution potential" because it had shots of the first
Persian Gulf war. "The theaters decided their patrons would be upset at
seeing the bodies," he said.

 "We all have to make films for an audience that is a family audience," he
went on, "when you are talking about Imax, because they are in science
centers and museums."

He added, however, "there are a number of us who are concerned that there is
a kind of tacit overcaution, overprotectedness of the audience on the part
of theater operators."

 In any event, censoring films like "Volcanoes" is not an option, said Dr.
Field, who said Mr. Low, the film's producer, got in touch with him when the
evolution issue arose to ask whether the film should be altered.

 "I said absolutely not," recalled Dr. Field, who retired from the National
Science Foundation last year.

 Mr. Low said that arguments over religion and science disturbed him because
of his own religious faith. In his view, he said, science is "a celebration
of what nature or God has done. So for me, there's no conflict."

Dr. Lutz, the Rutgers oceanographer, recalled a showing of "Volcanoes" he
and Mr. Low attended at the New England Aquarium. When the movie ended, a
little girl stood in the audience to challenge Mr. Low on the film's
suggestion that Earth might have formed billions of years ago in the
explosion of a star. "I thought God created the Earth," she said.

He replied, "Maybe that's how God did it."

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