A film that tells the “true story” of 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin will finally be making its U.S. debut this weekend – nearly four months after its worldwide release.
“Creation,” which stars Paul Bettany in the leading role, will be distributed in limited theaters through Newmarket Films, which picked up the movie just days after the its producer garnered media attention by suggesting that the film had not found a distributor due to the divide that exists in America over the theory of evolution.
In September, producer Jeremy Thomas told the London-based Telegraph ahead of the European premiere of “Creation” that the movie had picked up a distributor “everywhere else in the world but in the U.S. … because of what the film is about.”
“People have been saying this is the best film they've seen all year, yet nobody in the U.S. has picked it up,” he said. "It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America.”
Not long afterward, Newmarket Films picked up the movie, announcing late last September that they “pride ourselves in getting behind important films that help open the door for discussion and conversation, as is the case with 'Creation.'"
"While Darwin's name has come to symbolize one side of a debate between the scientific and the theological, 'Creation' personifies the debate, with both sides contending, sometimes violently, within the man,” stated Newmarket's Chris Ball. “In that sense, we believe that the film will appeal both to people of faith and people of science."
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Based on the book "Annie's Box," written by Darwin's great-grandson Randal Keynes, “Creation” tells the story of Darwin and how the world-renowned scientist’s landmark work, “The Origin of Species,” came to light.
Though Darwin’s theory of evolution plays a big role in the movie, actor Benedict Cumberbatch (who played the role of Darwin's closest friend, British botanist Joseph Hooker) said the story presented in “Creation” is “a very universal story.”
The movie reveals Darwin as a dedicated family man struggling to accept his daughter’s death and torn between his love for his deeply religious wife and his own “growing belief in a world where God has no place,” according to the film’s synopsis.
Despite the “very universal” storyline, the film’s producer said “Creation” was apparently “too controversial for religious America” when finding a distributor in the United States proved to be a difficult task for the “Creation” team.
“There's still a great belief that He (God) made the world in six days,” Thomas told the Telegraph. “It's quite difficult for we (sic) in the U.K. to imagine religion in America. We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the U.S., outside of New York and LA, religion rules.”
Coincidentally (or not), the few cities in which “Creation” will be making its U.S. debut are reportedly New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, and Boston.
According to the Gallup organization, which has polled U.S. adults about their beliefs on evolution and creation since 1982, 44 percent of Americans surveyed last year said they believe God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years.
Thirty-six percent, meanwhile, said they believe that man has developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but that God guided the process, including man's creation.
Only 14 percent believe man has developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life and that God had no part in the process.
The figures have remained relatively the same over the past nearly three-decades, with the last group having shown a significant – though slight – increase.
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