Christian baby gift

"I plan on making out with Mel Gibson when I see him, to thank him," says Saved!'s cowriter and co-director Brian Dannelly. He's referring to the boost in visibility Gibson's recent box-office-busting biblical epic has given his own Christian-themed film--although it's doubtful Gibson will want to return the favor.

Saved! centers on Mary (Donnie Darko's Jena Malone), an earnest student at American Eagle Chistian High School who loses her virginity to her boyfriend after she believes Jesus commands her to help the poor lad cure his homosexuality. Not only doesn't it work, but he gets shipped off to a reform center, leaving ex-virgin Mary alone and pregnant.

"It forces her to start questioning everything in her life," says Malone. "You come to a certain point in your adolescence where you realize that [it] is equally as messed-up as this adult world you're supposed to be entering."

It's a scenario Dannelly--who attended a Catholic elementary school, a Jewish summer camp, and a Southern Baptist high school--knows all too well. He and cowriter Michael Urban (raised Southern Baptist) began penning the project after commiserating over their being-gay-in-the-South stories while in film school.

After they graduated, their script caught the eye of Michael Stipe--REM front man, budding film producer, and fellow Southerner--who helped the first time filmmakers snag their dream cast, including Mandy Moore as the most popular and pious gift in school and Macaulay Culkin as her wheelchair--bound but free-thinking brother--as well as a premiere at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

"One of the first things that popped into my head after I'd read the script was ... finally," Malone says. "I had never read a script about young people and [their] spiritual beliefs." Dannelly says one mason he cast Malone was because he felt the actress was uniquely attuned to her character's particular dilemmas: Raised by two women, Malone was emancipated at 15 to give herself more freedom as a working actress.

"There's a thousand different types of love, and you have to accept that," Malone says with a maturity beyond her 19 years. "I grew up Christian to a certain degree.... I still have a lot more to figure out, but I think I went into the film with my own idea of what spirituality was, and if anything, [making the movie] strengthened it."

Indeed, while the students' Christian-is-cool ethos in played for (big) laughs, Dannelly and Urban insist they aren't out to ridicule people who have strong faith. Quite the contrary. "[The movie] really is about saying that examining what you believe makes your beliefs stronger," Urban says.

Dannelly says he wanted to "make a film for everybody, ultimately." It was imperative for him that he reach "that one kid in the audience who's confused or scared or feeling left out." If in doing so things get mushy, then so be it. "I think there are very few [gay] people who can say, 'I know in ray heart that Jesus still loves me,'" Dannelly explains, referring to a climactic line uttered by the gay boyfriend. "I know it's a bit of a corny moment in the movie, but it was so important for me to have that character say that."

As for The Passion of the Christ, while they know there has certainly never been a better time for a Chistian-themed movie to be hitting theaters, Dannelly and Urban express mixed feelings about the inevitable comparisons between their film and Gibson's. For one thing, neither of them wants Saved! to preach only to the proverbial choir.

"We've gotten a really positive response from Christians," Urban says. "People ask us, 'Is it a Christian film?' Yes and no. 'Is it a gay film?' Yes and no. It falls into so many different categories; hopefully, everyone can enjoy it."

Or at least think about it. "Even if you come out not liking the film because of the issues we're trying to explore," Malone says, "at least you have those questions in your head. That's the ultimate goal for any film."

For his part, Dannelly relishes a particular audience comment he received after a screening: "The Passion is about how Christ died, and Saved! is about who Christ died for.' I thought that was pretty good."

Vary also writes for Entertainment Weekly.