Angel Studios, the faith-friendly studio behind "Sound of Freedom," is now drawing a hard line in the sand. The studio has unveiled "The Angel Promise," a sweeping new content policy that bans on-screen sex, nudity, F-words and any misuse of God's name in its films.
Co-founder and CCO Jeff Harmon announced the policy Thursday on Fox News, pitching it as a corrective to a Hollywood he says has lost touch with its audience.
I think Hollywood generally kind of lives in a bubble. These are excellent craftsmen. They're the best storytellers in the world... But at the same time, they've kind of drifted more and more away from the values-based audience that they used to serve [..] We promise there's never going to be nudity, and there'll never be sex on screen.
What about violence? Notably, "The Angel Promise" says nothing about it. You can't have a single F-word or sex, but bloodshed appears to be fair game, which tracks with a slate that includes the War drama "Young Washington," and, of course, "Sound of Freedom.” In other words, a nipple will be a scandal, but a body count? That’s perfectly fine.
The other interesting part is the voting. Angel says its Guild now numbers roughly 3 million paying members, and any film or series must score at least 70 out of 100 from them to make it onto the slate.
This is the first time in history that a major Hollywood studio... has come and said, we're going to let the audience have a veto right.
None of this should come as a surprise if you know where Angel came from. The company started off as VidAngel, a streaming service that let viewers skip or mute profanity, nudity, sex and graphic violence in Hollywood movies, until Disney and the other majors sued. The Harmon brothers took that defeat, pivoted to crowdfunding, and built Angel into a studio on the back of "The Chosen" and the surprise mega-hit "Sound of Freedom."
Angel's recent releases include "Runner," "Young Washington" and "David." Upcoming titles include "Drummer Boy," "Angel and the Badman" and "Zero A.D.: The Birth of Christ."
The studio has unveiled "The Angel Promise," a sweeping new content policy that bans on-screen sex, nudity, F-words and any misuse of God's name in its films.