Aliens, Atomics Bombs, and Artificial Intelligence

Three nuclear explosions blasted across my screen when I went to see Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City several weeks ago. One of them was in Asteroid City itself. Another was in the trailer for Oppenheimer—a movie about the man who invented the atomic bomb, so, it figures. Yet another was in the final shot of the trailer for Dune: Part Two, just as Paul Atreides says, “He who can destroy a thing has the real control of it.”

From Tennessee to Tasmania: An interview with Pete Peterson on The Hiding Place

Fifty years have passed since Corrie Ten Boom’s story, The Hiding Place, captivated audiences with her heroic testimony of a family offering resistance and refuge at great personal cost. In August, Rabbit Room Theatre, along with strategic partners, are excited to share the story anew with this global cinematic event following a four-week sold-out stage run in Nashville. From Tennessee to Tasmania, A.S. “Pete” Peterson’s adaptation will be hitting movie theaters next month, so we sat down to talk in-depth about Corrie as a true hero of the faith, the complexity of ideas involved, and finding such a reach beyond the Rabbit Room’s headquarters.

The Myths of Oppenheimer

As an English professor who is particularly interested in mythology and the role that stories play in helping us making meaning of our lives, I’m pretty attuned to noticing when such references show up and how they are utilized, whether in films or books. 

Like many people, this past weekend I saw Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated film on the “father of the atomic bomb”, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who headed The Manhattan Project during World War II. 

Reading The Bible Is Like Watching Foreign Cinema

I saw a tweet recently that said “contrary to what people on twitter will tell you, watching 1960s latvian arthouse films or whatever doesn’t make u a better, smarter or more interesting person. in fact, it usually just means you’re extra annoying]. watch whatever u like. the fast and the furious is perfectly fine.”

Join The Hiding Place Book Club

Join our book club to read Corrie Ten Boom’s beloved memoir The Hiding Place ahead of the global cinematic release of A. S. “Pete” Peterson’s new filmed stage adaptation.

Starting July 6^th through August 10^th we will meet weekly at 6pm CST over Zoom to discuss the book and the upcoming theatrical film adaptation. A. S. “Pete” Peterson will lead the group and welcome a few cast members into the discussion along the way.

The Broken Brotherhoods of Post-Pandemic Cinema

Back in April, I saw two movies in theaters: CREED III and the theatrical re-release of the Indian blockbuster RRR at the magnificent Belcourt Theatre in Nashville. If you’ve never heard of RRR, it’s an overwhelming and rollicking piece of epic historical fiction that quickly became the highest-grossing movie of all time in India last year–and you can watch it on Netflix. The story follows two real-life Indian revolutionaries who fought against colonialism, imagining the two of them as near-mythic heroes who go from the worst of enemies to the best of friends.

A Global Cinema Event: The Hiding Place

A year ago this month, Rabbit Room Theatre launched with my stage adaptation of Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place. It was a project that stretched me and the whole theatre team in a wealth of ways, and we were overjoyed with the reception. The show ran for 4-weeks to sold out performances at the Soli Deo Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and since then theater-goers and Corrie-lovers all over the world have been asking, “What’s next?” Well, the time has come to tell everyone what we’ve been working on for the past year. What most folks don’t know is that during the run of shows in Nashville, the stage play was filmed for cinema audiences over the course of two marathon-days of shooting.

But It Never Gets Easy: A Review of Running With Our Eyes Closed

We could never go back and be strangers
All our secrets are mixed and distilled
But you’ve taught me to temper my anger
And you’ve learned what it’s like to be still

Jason Isbell sings these lines in a song called “Running With Our Eyes Closed,” which is also the title of a new documentary by Sam Jones that follows the recording and release of Reunions–the chart-topping record put out by Isbell and his band, The 400 Unit, in early 2020. 

The Healing Sacrament of The Cinema

It’s a recent storytelling trend, but the concept might be relevant to reality right now: sometimes, it can feel like we’re all living in alternate universes.

Love, Niceness, and The Banshees of Inisherin

“I don’t want to be your friend anymore.”

Everyone has probably heard some variation of these words at least once in their life – and they feel particularly common between kids on the playground. That’s probably why, when full-grown ColmSonnyLarry offers more or less the same words to his buddy Pádraic Súilleabháin, some folks in the village say, “What is he, twelve?”

The Rings of Power: An Invitation

If you have already begun the adventure of watching and discussing the Amazon Prime show titled The Rings of Power, hello fellow traveler! Isn’t this exciting? If you are on the fence, having second thoughts, or even not giving it any second thoughts, keep reading. It is my mission to nudge you out the door, down the road, and get you swept up into Middle-Earth in the Second Age. 

The Subversive Ordinariness of ‘Andor’ and ‘The Chosen’

Sometime recently, I was bubbling over with praise once again for the new Star Wars series, Andor, and my wife said something that struck me. “It sounds like you like this show for the same reasons we’ve liked The Chosen.”