I have to admit, I didn’t see this one coming. Rick Santorum = Movie Mogul. That’s right, former presidential candidate Rick Santorum just became the CEO of a movie company that specializes in Christian entertainment.
Deadline reports:
The most recent news item on Rick Santorum‘s website is the former U.S. senator’s enthusiastic endorsement of Mitt Romney for president of the United States. But the runner-up for the 2012 GOP nomination is back in the headlines: He’s the new CEO of EchoLight Studios, a faith-based production, distribution, marketing and financing company that has released eight straight-to-video films since its founding in 2011.
The Dallas-based company has four films in postproduction including The Redemption of Henry Myers, which this fall will be its first theatrical release. “To me, this is a natural extension of a lot of work I’ve been doing,” Santorum told the Wall Street Journal. “One of the things you run into in politics is that you’re downstream from the culture; it’s a huge influence in what goes on in society.”
He reportedly will do everything from reading scripts to weighing acquisitions for films in the $2M-$2.5M range that target “soccer moms” ages 35-55 who drive minivans and listen to Christian radio. “I’m not a film producer, but clearly there’s a lot of synergy there,” he told WSJ. “I have a brand; I have opportunities to meet with the influencers in the conservative/Christian community.
I just love the image of Rick Santorum going all Hollywood and rocking the shades and leaving the top two buttons undone while he’s lunching with Lorenzo Lamas. But something tells me that just as unlikely as Santorum changing Hollywood is Hollywood changing Santorum.
I look forward to anything he can accomplish. Any improvements that can be made to Christian entertainment, I’m all for it.
