Peter Chattaway’s blog is interesting.
http://filmchatblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Expelled

Taxpayers were on the hook for a million dollars in the DI legal fees for Dover and now educators in Louisiana will have to deal with creationism under the pretentious label of ‘religious freedom.’ There are hard working good people in the state education system that are going to be over another barrel.

I don’t care if someone chooses to be a six day creationist, I’d care if they tried to teach their belief in science class to the nephews and neices.

The Discovery Institute is set up to exploit a policial wedge issue, going full tilt with the either/or religious spin. It’s creationism repackaged.

Haven’t found the Cdn box office receipts yet for Expelled, I think if Premise Media going to make money in Canada, UK, Australia etc it will do so in DVD sales for the target audience.

That’s not passed muster in the US courts to this point; the Dover, PA case is the main one in the system, which had ID tossed out as warmed-over creationism. The Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on ID as of yet, however; Anthony Kennedy might think that ID is religiously-neutral enough to be OK.

If a reviewer is hostile towards religion, they’ll not like Expelled. The reviewer in our paper gave it both barrels, but he seemed to be predisposed to dislike a conservative take on the issue.

The people I know who saw it liked it, but they’re hard-core pro-creationists who are one of the target audiences.

I didn’t count Canadian reviews…

Windsor Star, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, NatPo, Globe and Mail, Macleans, The Hour CBC, Montreal Mirror, Halifax Coast, Ottawa Citizen, Straight.com, Montreal Gazette, Edmonton Sun.

That’s off the top of my head, pretty much covers the areas it opened. The producers and marketers can’t complain about coverage.

Top Docs box office receipts:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=documentary.htm

I don’t think international audiences are going to get too worked up over this one.

Shows how little interest there is in this film or how much
a failure the whole endeavour is with a Canadian audience.

In over two months’ of playing in the US, it has grossed
less than $8 million. Wonder if anyone’s taken a bath on
this thing and where that would be. Certainly not Missouri
where teaching evolution is illegal.

And where did the 100 Huntley Street Mainse sons study?
In Missouri, natch.

Apart from that, this isn’t a strong interest of mine. I’ve certainly followed some of the screw ups the PR company for this film got themselves into, but truth is, there are far better Cdn bloggers able to tackle this topic.

I honestly don’t know what inroads The Discovery Institute have made in Canada, what corresponding Canadian groups may be lobbying to get creationism into our schools, again, it’s not my area of expertise.
Other than Charles McVety and Maurice Vellacott sending out invites to MP’s the Senate and staffers, I’ve not heard any other lobbying attempts.

I question the claim in Walt Ruloff made in the Chattaway interview that 50 people showed up for the ROM protest: http://www.straight.com/article-151149/is-it-science-friction?#

Maybe they did get 50, but Ruloff is selling his product, why let facts get in the way?

A Halifax writer played the anti-American card in the Stein promotional tour, it’s Stein’s job to sell the product. http://www.thecoast.ca/Articles-i-2008-06-26-152339.113118_Ben_Steins_artificial_intelligence.html

It’s a long weekend here, I think other things will capture the Canadian public interest.

Free Gonzalez: Guillermo Gonzalez never anticipated becoming a test case - has been featured in “Expelled no Intelligence Allowed”

Debate may be to soft a word.