Oh, he’s retained some of his rebellious nature: He enjoys carrying the cross down the aisle at his church, but he does it wearing blue jeans and Rolling Stones T-shirts. Like most, he was thoroughly disgusted by the clerical sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church earlier in the decade, but it doesn’t diminish his allegiance to his Catholic faith.
"The Eucharist and the presence of the body and blood of Christ is, in my mind, an overwhelming experience for me. I find that Communion for me is empowering. It's almost a feeling of a kind of high."
The same enthusiasm applies to his new Guadalupe project, which he calls a "labor of love," because he’s been "hoping for some time to write a film that is both entertaining and inspiring."
Now that he’s outside the Hollywood system, he can see how it looks from the churchgoer’s perspective. He told the Toledo Blade, "I find it mind boggling that with nearly 70 percent of Americans describing themselves as Christians, and witnessing the success of ‘The Passion of The Christ’ and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia,’ that Hollywood still doesn't do the kinds of faith-based and family-value entertainment that people are desperate to see." (I chuckle. That’s what we’ve been saying for years, Joe.)
But his is not the only religious movie in the works. Director Roland Joffe, acclaimed years ago for "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission," is shooting a movie in Argentina focused on the founder of Opus Dei, the Catholic lay organization so thoroughly smeared by "The Da Vinci Code." The movie, "There Be Dragons," tells the story of St. Josemaria Escriva, the order’s founder.
In an interview with The New York Times, Joffe called himself a "wobbly agnostic," but explained, "I was very interested in the idea of embarking on a piece of work that took religion seriously on its own terms and didn’t play a game where one approached religion denying its validity."
Joe Eszterhas’ cure may have been miraculous. If so, it appears it isn’t the only miracle taking place in Hollywood these days.