'Mollywood' shuffle ahead
Mormon filmmakers branching out to more secular movies
Debbie Hummel, Associated Press
LA Daily News
10/30/05
OREM, Utah - After almost five years of making movies for Mormons, the group of filmmakers who were part of the genre's most prolific production studio are branching out with projects that leave the church jokes behind with the hopes of engaging a broader audience.
And they want to do it in their own backyard. Could Utah become a "Mollywood" of sorts - a family-focused, filmmaking Mecca that still caters to Molly Mormons, the nickname given to those who embrace the faith's clean-cut morality?
If filmmaker Richard Dutcher started it all with "God's Army," his 2000 film about missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Los Angeles, Dave Hunter and Kurt Hale perfected it. The two formed Halestorm Entertainment in 2001 and went on to release a string of movies over the past four years, mostly comedies, aimed exclusively at a Mormon audience.
Members of the LDS church are discouraged from watching R-rated films.
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