SAVEHOLLYWOOD FOR LION TVRecently the entertainment TV show Inside Edition invited Nicolosi to be a guest. SAVEHOLLYWOOD FOR LION MOVIEThe movie industry remains affected by post-9/11 national anxiety, and now studio heads want to make movies that "mean something." At the same time, it's well aware of what's known around town as " Passion dollars"-the previously untapped religious audience that made Mel Gibson's independently distributed movie The Passion of the Christ last year's biggest surprise. The reasons are partly spiritual, partly economic. "Send us your top five scripts." Some might consider this condescending, but Nicolosi figures that at least Hollywood is starting to make room for people like her. "We need a Christian movie," they tell Barbara Nicolosi, the former nun who founded Act One. Roemer is one of the fresh new voices that Act One faculty members talk about when Hollywood studio executives call. Or, as he later characterized his answer, "Anyone who thinks he has it figured out is B.S." "I believe in Jesus not because I was told to but because I've found nothing more authentic, even in the middle of an ocean of questions," he wrote in reply. When he applied, Roemer was asked to describe his belief in Jesus Christ. This summer he was one of thirty-four students who attended the four-week screenwriting program at Act One. Boyish, with floppy blond hair, he looks indistinguishable from any other Hollywood writer in his slouchy jeans and ironic vintage T-shirt ( Lawn Rocket. Roemer is slumped in a corner on a little stool eating leftover rice with his fingers, and he laughs when he hears this part read. A couple of times he thinks he is divining the will of God ("Saytha … merry … sahar … uh …"), but it might just as well be snippets from some infomercial: "Holy mascara? Sonny and Cher-a? Aloe vera? It was something like that." Roemer's script is about a young man who thinks he might be a prophet. Mel Gibson's Jesus gazes down from a movie poster on the wall. In these first-floor offices at the foot of the Hollywood Hills, Bibles are as visible as the hundreds of videos lying around in stacks and on bookshelves, many of which conservative Christians would never let their children watch ( American Beauty, Being John Malkovich, The Sopranos, Will & Grace). They sit in a semicircle on the homey velour couches of Act One, a Los Angeles program for aspiring Christian screenwriters. Daniel Roemer, a twenty-five-year-old aspiring director, has gathered about a dozen actors and friends to read from his latest movie script, which is going to be called either American Dreamer or 10,000 Virgins.
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