‘Nativity’ hopes to catch ‘Passion’ crowd

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Capturing ‘The Passion’s’ audience
Though not dreamed up as a bookend to Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” the filmmakers and distributor New Line Cinema hope they can capture a solid chunk of the audience that made that film such an unlikely blockbuster.

With classy production values and straightforward drama, “The Nativity Story” stands apart from a holiday-movie season crowded with lighter Christmas offerings such as the comedies “Deck the Halls” and “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause.”

The tale of the first Christmas has a ready-made audience, producer Bowen said.

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“There are faith-based movies being made, but usually for micro-budgets, and usually designed to reach a very specific niche market,” Bowen said. “Our argument to New Line was: Well, if 200 million Americans who consider themselves Christians are a niche, then that’s a niche that maybe you should consider working with.”

“The Nativity Story” lacks Gibson’s star power or the religious firestorm that preceded the movie over Jewish leaders’ fears that it could stoke anti-Semitism. But unlike Gibson’s film, whose savage scourging and crucifixion scenes brought a restrictive R rating, the PG-rated “Nativity Story” can play to all audiences, including family crowds.

Director Hardwicke, who started as a production designer, said Gibson set a standard for authenticity and historical detail that she tried to match. Though far softer than the horrors depicted in “The Passion of the Christ,” “The Nativity Story” does carry a tactile sense of the struggles Mary and Joseph underwent on their journey.

“By the end, it does mean something. It’s not just little action figures you put together in your manger scene on nice comfortable hay. It’s real animal crap in there and real sores on their hands and feet that are bleeding,” Isaac said. “It cost them something to travel to Bethlehem.”

The film’s depiction of Christ’s birth in a lowly stable is gentle, inspiring and beatific — just the thing to remind audiences preparing for the Christmas frenzy about where the holiday came from.

“There’s a line in the script, ‘the greatest of kings born in the most humble of places,”’ Hardwicke said. “That’s revolutionary. It’s saying the power is not a physical power. It’s not riches, it’s not money, it’s not control of governments and nations. It’s a deeper power, spirituality. ...

“It’s revolutionary even now. We can’t even grasp that now. We think we need all the trappings and physical things to be happy, but that’s not necessarily the case.”

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