I didn't mean to get on this kick about religious movies, but over at Lawyers, Guns and Money, SEK goes to town on Crusader Pictures, and the rather silly mission statement thereof. He's spending more time on the historical etymology of the name than the purpose of the company, which I think is fair, given the pearl-clutching the founders are making about defining it. But I honestly think companies like this are somewhat behind the point. Take Icon, Mel Gibson's production company. Sure, it's succeeded at getting the faithful, and children way too young for pornographic violence, in front of The Passion of the Christ, but simply producing counterbalance movies aimed at Christians isn't going to convince non-believers, or people who really like to see Megan Fox in short-shorts fighting robots.
What really needs to be filled up is the interstitial space between The Passion of the Christ and Transformers. I may not be a culture warrior, but that doesn't mean I think the dominant assumptions and tropes of our popular culture are a-okay. I don't think Crusader Pictures is going to make movies with awesome female action heroines, though, or great gay romantic comedies, though. Instead, whatever movies it makes will just be more weight on another side of the teeter-totter. And broken teeter-totters are pretty depressing.