DISNEY PROMOTING SECRETARIAT AMONG CHRISTIAN GROUPS

Disney is heavily promoting its Oct. 8 release of Secretariat among what it calls “faith-based audiences,” using a strategy similar to that employed by Warner Bros. in its marketing of The Blind Side, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Wednesday). The trade publication notes that a lengthy bible quote which opens the movie is included in ads for the movie on Christian websites and that some of those sites include reviews of the film. An invitation to a screening for a group called Catholic Media Review, the Reporter observed, noted that director Randall Wallace is not only “one of the most successful directors of all time, he is also a devout Christian.” Wallace himself told the Reporter that he believes the movie will resonate among a broad cross section of moviegoers. “I have high hopes people with middle-American values will enjoy it,” he said. “We celebrated the same values in Braveheart and We Were Soldiers, but those movies had an element of loss in them. With this movie, the audience is cheering like it’s a rock concert.”