Sunday
11May2008
'Religulous' Takes a Five-Month Vow of Silence
Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 9:46PM 
I should like Bill Maher more than I do. He's a smart guy, clearly, he hates religion, he's smug...I mean, it's like we have the same DNA. But for whatever reason, probably all those borderline creepy photo ops with him draped by 20ish bimbos at the Playboy Mansion, I've just never been totally on his side. I feel differently, at least in theory, about his new movie, Religulous, a kind of Fahrenheit 9/11 about those who believe in an afterlife. Maher crowed recently on Larry King about the unbelievable access he got to make his documentary, saying, "We went to Vatican City, we went to Jerusalem, we went to Salt Lake City. You know, I think I've insulted everybody."And when asked by the talking suspenders if the film reflects the atheist's view of religion, Maher replied, "Well, yes. It's certainly the doubters view of religion."All of that sounds well and good, but Lionsgate has decided to circle the airport for a little while, and will now release Religulous on October 3rd."Originally we liked the idea of positioning Religulous as counterprogramming among the summer blockbusters, but we simply weren't ready to premiere the film at Cannes or any other spring festival," said Lionsgate head Tom Ortenberg. "We do feel that a film like this needs a big festival launch. We're going to target some of the more prestigious fall fests. We want to emulate the box office success of films like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko, which had major launches at prestigious fests where the films were lightning rods of a sort and created a stir within the media."Oh, I think it will be a lightning rod. Turns out people take their religion pretty seriously. Or don't you read the papers?
Colin Boyd | Permalink | in Documentary, Religulous | Print Article | Email Article | 1 Comment | Share Article
Reader Comments (1)
The reason you may find it hard to really be on his side? Simple...he's just NOT FUNNY, and he comes off as a total jerk way too often (on his overrated show, he frequently berates his own audience if they don't laugh at his jokes, even when they're duds- which is too often the case)...