Former Senator and cum fart cocktail namesake Rick Santorum was tapped, with much ballyhoo, to be CEO of a faith-based film studio called EchoLight Studios back in June. Fast forward a little more than three months, and EchoLight is already embroiled in a lawsuit with two executives who were fired last week, with EchoLight accusing them of “orchestrating a campaign of sabotage.” I’m no Bible scholar, but it’d be awesome if this ended with someone getting cut in half with a sword.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
Some of the dispute stems from a sports movie in post-production called Hoovey. Directed by Soul Surfer director Sean McNamara, the film stars Patrick Warburton and tells the true story of Eric “Hoovey” Elliott, a high school basketball player whose brain tumor caused him to have to re-learn basic functions, including how to walk and talk. […]
“EchoLight Studios is in a positive position and we are growing and expanding everyday. We have just closed on our multi-million dollar film fund and are excited about the future,” the spokeswoman said. “With Rick Santorum as CEO, we will announce the hiring of an interim president this week, with more exciting news to follow. We look forward to the Red Carpet Premieres of The Christmas Candle in Dallas and Orlando on October 21, with the national release in November.”
The Christmas Candle, directed by John Stephenson, is about a small English town in 1890 that, as legend has it, is visited by an angel every 25 years. Susan Boyle, the Britain’s Got Talent singer who became a YouTube sensation in 2009, makes her film debut in The Christmas Candle. [HollywoodReporter]
Ooh, The Christmas Candle sounds great, but it has some big, Christian shoes to fill if it wants to out-do Christmas with a Capital C, with Daniel Baldwin and Ted McGinley. But it seems like they’re on the right track. I heard “2009 YouTube sensation” and my eyeballs immediately turned into cash registers.
As for Hoovey, EchoLight says the movie received $1 million in studio money but that Morrow did not to turn over financial documents related to the picture.
The lawsuit also says that Downes and Morrow were sabotaging the studio by making negative comments about it in front of partners and licensors.
“At least two other partners/licensors of important EchoLight movie projects have communicated their desire to end their business relationship with EchoLight,” the lawsuit states.
Over the past weekend after Downes and Morrow had been fired, according to the complaint, “someone hijacked EchoLight’s Facebook account and shut off all other EchoLight administrators of that account. Whoever hijacked the account then inserted a story about defendant Downes that inaccurately described him as EchoLight’s ‘founder.’ Upon information and belief, either defendant Downes or defendant Morrow, or both, were behind this hijacking.” [THR]
Aw, it’s just like the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, where Cain was jealous of Abel’s sacrifice to God, so he logged into Abel’s Facebook account and updated his status to “I blow goats.” And then God punished Cain by taking away his verified check mark on Twitter. The mark of Cain, they called it, and he was forever cast into the spam folder.
On a serious note, if you’re a director of light, uplifting Christian fare like the Soul Surfer guy, do you really want to be associated with a hateful shitheel like Rick Santorum? I imagine that guy would scare away two investors for every one he attracted. Which the Jews assure me is bad business. What? What’d I say?
I think the Christmas Candle made this kid soil his breeches.
