Home-grown religious movements are one of the few subjects that Hollywood are reluctant to tackle, often because of the waves of protests that normally follow. In the past few decades, Alexander Payne’s “Citizen Ruth” and Michael Tolkin’s “The Rapture” are two of the few successful tries, with the likes of “Dogma” and “Saved!” proving brave, but ultimately squandered attempts. However, with Paul Thomas Anderson tackling Scientology in his as-yet-untitled project, there seems to be a new mini-trend, with “Salvation Boulevard” being the next example.
We reported on the film a few months back, when Pierce Brosnan, Ed Harris and comedian Jim Gaffigan (“Away We Go”) joined the cast, and now they’ve got some company, as Jennifer Connelly and Greg Kinnear have signed on, while Marisa Tomei is in advanced negotiations to join. The project, directed by George Ratliff, who was behind the Sam Rockwell/Vera Farmiga psycho child movie “Joshua,” is based on the 2008 novel by author Larry Beinhart, whose book “American Hero” was adapted into Barry Levinson’s excellent satire “Wag the Dog.”
According to Variety, the plot follows “a former Deadhead turned born-again Christian who finds himself on the run from fundamentalist members of his mega-church who will do anything to protect their larger-than-life pastor.” From looking at the book, the ‘former Deadhead’ appears to be a private detective, Carl Van Wagener, who is hired by a Jewish lawyer defending an Islamic college student accused of murdering his atheist professor, so all bases of potential offensiveness seem to be covered.
It’s a very exciting cast, full of actors who invariably make anything they’re in exponentially better (if you temporarily ignoring Pierce Brosnan’s recent form, but having said that, the last time he acted opposite Greg Kinnear, in “The Matador,” he gave the best performance of his career). There’s no word yet on who’s playing which part, but our guess would be that Harris is taking the lead, and either Brosnan or Kinnear will play the pastor of the “mega-church.” Production’s getting underway in April, and we can’t wait.