The religulous release maher religion people

Maher, who has been picking on organized religion for years on his TV
shows “Politically Incorrect” and “Real Time,” zealously traveled the
world for “Religulous,” his documentary challenging the validity and
value of Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths.

Raised in a Roman Catholic household by a Catholic father and Jewish
mother, Maher decided at an early age that the trappings and mythology
of the world’s religions were preposterous, outdated and even
dangerous.

“Religulous,” directed by fellow doubter Larry Charles (“Borat:
Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of
Kazakhstan”), is intended to inspire similar skepticism in others
— and perhaps get nonbelievers to talk more openly about their
lack of faith.

“I’m not looking to form an anti-religion religion. That would defeat
the purpose,” Maher said in an interview at the Toronto International
Film Festival, where “Religulous” played in advance of its theatrical
release Friday. “It’s the nature of the people who are not believers
that they’re individuals, they’re individualistic. They don’t join and
all lock arms and say, ‘We all believe this and so it must be true
because we have strength in numbers.'”

The numbers Maher and Charles really hope to grab are general
audiences simply looking for a fun night at the movies.

Maher, 52, who started mocking religion back in his early standup
comedy days, has no misconceptions that “Religulous” will shake
people’s lifelong convictions to the core. He’s mainly looking for
laughs such as those the film elicited from the enthusiastic crowd at
its Toronto premiere.

“I was so gratified to finally go to a screening with people last
night and hear how big the laughs are,” Maher said. “Because we set
out to make a comedy. I always said, my primary motivation was I’m a
comedian, and this is comedy gold.

“When you’re talking about a man living to 900 years old, and drinking
the blood of a 2,000-year-old god, and that Creation Museum where they
put a saddle on the dinosaur because people rode dinosaurs. It’s just
a pile of comedy that was waiting for someone to exploit.”

Charles shot 400 to 500 hours of material around the world as Maher
visited a Christian chapel for truckers in North Carolina, a gay
Muslim bar in the Netherlands, the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake
City, and Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy places in Israel.

Maher meets with priests at the Vatican, chats with rabbis and Muslim
scholars in Jerusalem, encounters street preachers in London, and
hangs out with the performer who plays Christ in a crucifixion
enactment at the Holy Land Experience theme park in Florida.

They left Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism alone
largely for budgetary reasons, saying the extra travel and expanded
scope would have made the film too unwieldy.

They also figured that Christianity, Islam and Judaism were the
trinity of faiths at the heart of Western conflict.

Charles grew up Jewish and once considered becoming a rabbi but was
discouraged by his parents, who told him to “get bar-mitzvahed, get
the checks and then get the hell out,” he said. He said he now shares
Maher’s position: Heavy on doubt about the existence of a supreme
being, even heavier on certainty that organized religion is hazardous
to humanity’s health.

“If I believe that Jesus is God and you believe Mohammed is God, then
no matter how tolerant we are, we are never going to meet,” Charles
said. “All you have to do is push that one more step, then somebody’s
like, ‘You’re in the way of people believing in Jesus,’ and ‘You’re in
the way of people believing in Mohammed,’ and the only answer is to
kill you.

“Unfortunately, that sort of thing dominates the religious landscape,
not the Mother Teresas of the world. She becomes the aberration. …
The altruistic wing of religion has been minimized and this
militaristic, warmongering fundamentalism has become the dominant
presence.”

Charles said he assembled the 100-minute film from 14 hours of prime
material. He has suggested to distributor Lionsgate that the 14-hour
cut could be edited into half-hour segments and sold to television as
a series.

Never one to soft-pedal his own opinions, Maher openly scorns remarks
made by Christians, Jews and Muslims he interviews. He hopes audiences
will laugh with him, and that “Religulous” will stand as a testament
for people who share his scorn.

“It is a sobering thought to think that the U.S. Congress has 535
members and there’s not one who represents this point of view, and yet
there are tens of millions of Americans who feel this way,” Maher
said.

“Comedians have always made jokes about religion. It’s a rich topic. I
did when I was a young comedian, but they weren’t jokes that got right
to the essence of it, which is, this is dangerous and this is silly.”

Senator Joe Biden’s tendency to go too far and the hazards of debating
a woman are signs of possible perils ahead.

The Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh looks back on years of walks in
the hills of the West Bank.

An insider look at film director Zhang Yimou, who is directing the
opening cermonies at the Olympic Games.

I’m reading burn in religulous movie

• (Burn After Reading). She canceled reservations in one hotel
she considered too close to him and relocated to premises further
away. Aniston’s privacy was also protected by her main PR man Stephen
Huvane, who spread his jacket in front of her to block any underwear
shots during her limo exit.

• The premiere of Burn After Reading turned the normally cool
Toronto crowd into a blazing mob of young girls hot for Pitt, who
signed autographs on any material offered. The Bradulation overwhelmed
costar, who felt compelled to apologize to the crowd: “I’m sorry I’m
not Brad!”

• MIA from the Burn After Reading screamathon was Pitt BFF , in
Milan filming a Japanese commerical for Honda.

• to escort her, Hathaway was ushered down the red carpet by her
mom and dad. “OK,” she admitted, “I’m adorkable.”

• “I’m a guy’s girl and a girl’s girl,” said Elizabeth Banks
(Zack and Miri Make a Porno), who went all out for director Kevin
Smith. Although she thought one controversial MPAA-offending scene
went “too far,” she said after seeing the finished movie that she
changed her mind. “It’s such a great moment, a moment where we really
push it, and why not?”

• A small and polite group of local protesters—who may have
been part of a publicity stunt or just your typical low-key
Canadians—were trying to save the soul of and damn his religion-
mocking film, Religulous. Asked whether the sign-carrying marchers
(“Pray for Bill,” “Hate + Fear = Religulous”) were employed by Maher,
the comic only denied the handwriting was his, saying the
demonstrators “wouldn’t have been so lame if I’d hired them.” Writer-
director Larry Charles, who as a producer of Seinfeld and Curb Your
Enthusiasm made an art out of nothing, found nothing nice to say about
Sarah Palin. Palin’s desire to have creationism taught in school with
evolution is, Charles quipped, “like teaching magic and chemistry
together.”

• , Alicia Keys andSophie Okonedo were in town to amp up the buzz
for their Civil Rights story, The Secret Life of Bees. Latifah said
she’s brave enough to “drive in a car 200 miles an hour,” ride a
motorcycle “or put me on a roof five floors up. But you put me in with
bees, I’m shivering. It was kind of scary.” Latifah also noted how
Barack Obama came campaigning near their set in North Carolina and
“suddenly the world changed.”

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Movie welles film in religulous movie

(09-10) 04:00 PDT Toronto – — Looking all grown up in a strapless
black cocktail dress, Evan Rachel Woodtold a Toronto International
Film Festival audience that it was her 21st birthday. The crowd burst
into a round of “Happy Birthday.”

The best present she could have received had come over the weekend
when “The Wrestler” – a gritty movie about an aging wrestler in which
she plays his neglected daughter – was awarded the Venice Film
Festival’s highest honor, the Golden Lion. As hard as it is to imagine
MickeyRourkeas fathering the delicately lovely Wood, the two pull it
off.

“The Wrestler” is a comeback for Rourke, who took a bow at the Toronto
screening. Director Darren Aronofskytold the audience that before
hiring him he heard “a lot of baloney” about how problematic Rourke
was to work with. There’s Oscar buzz about his unsparing performance.
Before Aronofsky learned that Fox Searchlight had bought the American
rights for the film (news that came later that day), he joked that if
anyone wished to talk to him, he would be available after the
screening.

— As Bill Maherstrode down the red carpet, he could hear chants of
“Pray for Bill” emanating from protesters gathered nearby. They were
demonstrating against his documentary “Religulous” – his first foray
into filmmaking – in which he takes on organized religion, comparing
it to a comedy routine with its tall tales of talking snakes and Jonah
living in the belly of a whale. Demonstrators carried placards saying
things like “Don’t mock my religion.” Instead of hurting the film,
their presence only drew more publicity for it.

Onstage before a screening, Maher asked how many in the audience were
praying for him. He indicated that his own prayers were answered by
the selection of Sarah Palinas the Republican candidate for vice
president. “When I saw they had nominated a full-fledged Jesus freak,
I knew it was going to be good for my movie,” Maher laughingly told
the crowd.

— Talking about politics, Spike Lee was as omnipresent at the
festival – dashing from bookstores to interviews to news conferences
for his new movie, “Miracle at St. Anna,” based on the novel of the
same name – as he had been at the Democratic Convention a few weeks
back. He was pictured on TV wearing a T-shirt showing Barack
Obamadunking a basketball over JohnMcCain’s head. “Everybody called me
afterwards to find out how to get a T-shirt like that,” said Lee, who
said he plans to do as much campaigning for the Democratic candidate
as he can.

“Miracle at St. Anna” is the filmmaker’s first World War II movie. It
tells the story of the nation’s first African American infantry
division. The Buffalo Soldiers, as they were called, served in Italy.

— It was somehow fitting that “Flash of Genius” should premiere on a
rainy day in Toronto. The deeply affecting movie tells the story of
Robert Kearns, inventor of what is known as the “intermittent
windshield wiper,” the device that stops and starts your wiper so it
doesn’t run continuously.

At a news conference, Greg Kinnear, who gives the performance of his
career as Kearns, suggested everybody turn on their wipers in tribute
to him. Kinnear said he wasn’t concerned about mimicking Kearns’
gestures and voice. “This wasn’t like playing Nixon. Nobody has got an
idea of what the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper
looks like.”

— On the other hand, many people know what Orson Welleslooked like,
even if it was just from his wine commercial. Director Richard
Linklaterconsiders himself fortunate to have found someone who looks
uncannily like Welles to play the maddening genius in “Me and Orson
Welles” – a movie about Welles’ early years on the Broadway stage.
When Christian McKaycame onstage before a festival screening, the
audience gasped at the resemblance.

The film also stars Zac Efronas a young actor beguiled by Welles.
Efron is a celebrity among teens for his role in “High School
Musical.” When Linklater tapped him to be in “Me and Orson Welles, “I
was like ‘thank you, somebody, for offering me a serious role,’ ”
Efron told the audience.

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The religulous movie religion destroy debunk

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 (UPI) — The upcoming new U.S. movie “Religulous”
was created to “destroy the whole system” of organized religion
worldwide, director says.
Charles said at a recent news conference that the intent behind his
documentary-style film was not to debunk any religious beliefs, but
rather take an all-out assault on organized religion, The Observer
reported Sunday.

“I don’t think ‘debunk’ is the right word,” the “Borat” director said.
“I want to destroy more than debunk, just destroy the whole system.”

“Religulous” features noted satirist discussing religion with
individuals around the world and includes takes on every major
religion.

For his part in the movie, Maher admits the filmmakers had to use a
bit of deception in order to get people’s honest opinions regarding
the controversial topic.

“It was simple: We never, ever, used my name. We never told anybody it
was me who was going to do the interviews,” the comedian said. “We
even had a fake title for the film. We called it ‘A Spiritual
Journey.'”

Gunfire broke out Tuesday on a Ukrainian cargo ship hijacked by Somali
pirates in the Indian Ocean, Kenyan officials said.