Posted by chicagomedia.org on January 01, 2009 at 08:09:31:
Munster minister, 'Mancow' team up for 'Scrooge' film
BY MOLLY WOULFE
Holy humbug!
A Munster megachurch has just wrapped a big-screen take on the Charles Dickens tale about a miser who finds redemption one Christmas Eve.
"Scrooge: A Chicago Christmas" stars Pastor Steve Munsey as the title tightwad, with ex-shock jock Erich "Mancow" Muller rounding out the cast as an offbeat Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
"We're having a ball," said Munsey, Family Christian Center pastor, between takes at his Briar Ridge home, doubling as Scrooge's manor.
That goes double for the one-time wild child of radio, a member of Munsey's congregation. Muller wore a shiny foil suit for his scene, shot predawn at Elmwood Cemetery in Hammond. Though the look behooves a futuristic ghost in a 21st century "Christmas Carol," "I look like a baked potato," Muller joked Wednesday.
His pastor is "a ham, and I'm a ham actor, and we were in the graveyard until four o'clock in the morning. It was 18 below with the wind chill, and we were laughing hysterically," said Muller, 42. The pastor "is a real-world guy."
Like the rest of the cast, Muller worked for free. Munsey is "like the Pied Piper. He's Mickey Rooney, 'Let's put on a show,'" said Muller, who recently joined WLS-AM 890. "I don't think there's anyone outside of my family who could get me to do that."
Scripted by Munsey and set in Chicago, the hourlong yule tale depicts Scrooge as a broker who bullies his Cratchit-y butler and terrorizes his staff. The heavily local cast features Dave Van Dyke, president of Precision Construction in Highland, as the butler, and Richard Pellar, head of Crown Corr in Gary, as a priest.
The movie debuts Dec. 31 at the Family Christian Center, 340 W. 45th Ave. The nondenominational church, one of the fastest growing in America, invested $50,000 in its inaugural film. Broadcast talks are under way with three cable networks and two Chicago stations, church officials said. Munsey and minister-son Kent Munsey are executive producers.
According to director-producer Christian Hage, his crew shot the film in three weeks throughout Chicago and Northwest Indiana. The congregation was treated to sneak previews on weekends. In this nonsecular version, Scrooge finds religion as well as redemption.
The reformed sinner "accepts Jesus into his life," Hage said. "Our target market is the Christian world, and for someone to make the transition Scrooge makes, it will take more than a ghost. It takes the power of Jesus to bring that joy and holiday spirit. "
Munsey, fond of staging theatrical pageants at the Family Christian Center, has long aspired to branch into film. "A Chicago Christmas" is an offshoot of "Scrooge, the Musical," the church's popular, three-part holiday show.
Munsey, as narrator, made a dramatic entrance on horseback in Part One. The "illustrated sermon" concludes with performances at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and at 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
Mancow on Munsey
Erich "Mancow" Muller bills himself as a reformed shock jock.
The one-time bad boy of Chicago radio credits Pastor Steve Munsey for keeping him grounded when he was dropped by WKQX- FM 101.1 in 2006. The still-brash but toned-down "peaceful warrior" recently joined WLS-AM 890.
"I love my pastor," Muller said of Munsey. He calls the preacher "my rock." A married father of two, Muller attends services both at the Family Christian Center in Munster and its sister church in Chicago, run by Kent and Alli Munsey, the pastor's son and daughter-in-law. The couple, lead pastors at City Church, are his friends as well.
According to Muller, 42, he has met many people helped by the churches' outreach programs. But Munsey's sense of showmanship appeals, too. The pastor has been criticizing for skewing sermons toward the MTV generation and relying on high-tech theatrics to draw worshippers.
For Muller, it's not a sin to be a crowd-pleaser. The message of Christian faith matters.
The flamboyant minister "is not some crusty phony mumbling from a book. He is a great, great showman. He is the greatest public speaker on the planet Earth," he said. "He is the real deal. He's unique. He's the Walt Disney of Christendom."
/Northwest Indiana Times