For Release:
November 12, 1999
Encore Media Group Gets Exclusive Pay TV Rights To DOGMA
Director Kevin Smith's Controversial Movie About Religious Faith Premieres On
"The New Encore" in Fall 2000
Encore Chairman Sie Screens and Deals Directly For Film * Says Serious Message
Cloaked in Gen-X Vernacular Deserves To Be Seen
Englewood, Colo., November 11, 1999 * Encore Media Group (EMG) has acquired the
exclusive pay TV rights to the controversial new film Dogma, which opens
nationwide November 12. Dogma will have its world pay TV premiere on "The New
Encore" in the fall of 2000, with subsequent plays on other EMG channels.
EMG Founder, Chairman and CEO John J. Sie personally screened the film and
negotiated the pay TV rights, including subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), as
part of a competitive bidding process. Sie aggressively pursued the film
because he believes its message of religious faith cloaked in the culture of
Generation X outweighs its controversial content.
"The New Encore is about great movies, influential movies and first-run movies.
Dogma is all three," said Sie. "That's why we've decided to showcase this
groundbreaking and unique work on The New Encore, our first-run service
reaching 13.5 million homes." STARZ!, STARZ! Cinema and other Encore Thematic
Multiplex channels will play Dogma after it premieres on The New Encore. EMG
has 13 pay TV networks with over 52 million pay units.
"Audiences in their late teens and 20's are bombarded by a world of secular
images and ideas," said Sie. "Dogma's blend of comic book humor, street
language and theology may draw them into asking serious questions about
religious faith and the existence of God. And for older audiences with open
minds and a sense of humor, it's an entertaining film that might awaken or
reinforce feelings of faith."
The popular press is giving Dogma positive reviews. Entertainment Weekly gives
it an A* rating, calling Dogma an "obsessive meditation on faith in our time .
. a wild and intricate theological debate, a Sunday school catechism session
turned into a snap-crackle-and-pop thrill sermon for the mind." The New York
Times calls it "mercilessly funny" and a "devout, enlightened parable." Time
calls it "the most devout movie in a modern setting since Robert Bresson's
Diary of a Country Priest (1951)."
The film's satirical view of the Catholic Church has proven offensive to some
lay Catholic groups such as the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights,
which has condemned the film sight unseen. According to media reports, the
Catholic Church has not taken an official stand, but the United States Catholic
Conference has given Dogma its worst rating of "O" for "morally offensive."
But Dogma has also received positive and mixed reviews from other Catholic
quarters. The Rev. Carmen D'Amico, pastor at Pittsburgh's St. Benedict the Moor
Roman Catholic Church, told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette "There is faith in this
film. . . It made me really think of God's graciousness, mercy and compassion
for humanity. I think we should always see things before we comment on them."
"Artistic works written for youthful mass audiences may offend some adults,"
added Sie. "But Shakespeare wrote in the language of the masses and his plays
went on to become classics. As a contemporary work tackling the weighty subject
of religious faith, Dogma deserves to be seen."
Dogma is a comic fantasia by writer/director/actor Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing
Amy, Mallrats) where the latest battle in the eternal war between good and evil
comes to New Jersey in the late 20th Century. Angels, Demons, Apostles and
Prophets walk among the cynics and innocents of America and duke it out for the
fate of humankind. It features an all-star cast that includes Ben Affleck, Matt
Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman, George Carlin,
Janeane Garofalo, and the film debut of Grammy Award-winning artist Alanis
Morissette, as God.
In Dogma, two renegade fallen Angels (Affleck and Damon) discover a loophole in
the divine covenant that will allow them to escape their eternal banishment to
Wisconsin. But if they succeed, it will undo all of creation.
(www.dogma-movie.com)
Miramax produced Dogma, but when controversy developed, Miramax Co-Chairmen Bob
and Harvey Weinstein personally bought the film from Miramax. Lions Gate Films,
which has an output deal with Home Box Office (HBO), is distributing Dogma
theatrically in North America. Encore Media Group negotiated directly with the
Weinsteins for the pay TV rights.
STARZ! is a division of Encore Media Group LLC (EMG), the largest provider of
cable and satellite-delivered premium movie networks in the United States,
currently counting more than 52 million pay units through its ownership of 13
domestic channels including STARZ! and its Thematic Multiplex channels STARZ!
Theater, BET Movies/STARZ!, STARZ! Cinema, and STARZ! Family; the New Encore
and its Thematic Multiplex channels Mystery, Action, Love Stories, Westerns,
True Stories and WAM!; and MOVIEplex. For more information on EMG and its
Video Store at Home web site, log on to the Internet at
http://www.encoremedia.com. Encore is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty
Media Group (NYSE: LMGa and LMGb).
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Contact: Steve Belgard/Paul Jacobson Richard Hoffman/Jessica Cohen
Encore Media Group Warren Cowan Associates
(303) 771-7700 (310) 275-0777
