Faith-based fare may get made-in-Mass. tag
Producer envisions $150m studio, jobs for 1,500
By Steve Bailey, Globe Staff
June 6, 2007

Hollywood executive David Kirkpatrick has a vision: To make Massachusetts, the home of the Puritans that grew up to be the bluest of the blue states, into a hotbed of faith-based multimedia entertainment production.

Kirkpatrick, a former president of Paramount Pictures and a cofounder of the year-old Good News Holdings, whose mission is to produce "spiritainment" that will "please God," is in search of 100 acres in his native Massachusetts to build a $150 million-plus studio to produce films, television shows, and commercials, both religious and otherwise. His ambitious plans call for 14 sound stages, a "huge" back lot for filming and as many as 1,500 jobs. This is phase one, he says, which he wants to have "fully operational" by 2009.

"Our focus is on values-based entertainment across all platforms," Kirkpatrick, whose credits as a producer include "The Brady Bunch Movie" and "Big Night," said yesterday. "We are not Republicans, not Democrats. But people who want to make a difference in the culture." the rest