Evan Almighty

Newly elected to Congress, former television news reporter Evan Baxter leaves his hometown of Buffalo, New York and moves to the community of Prestige Crest, located in the fictional town of Huntsville, Virginia, where his congressional campaign declares that he will change the world. Evan prays to God to give him this opportunity. His wife, Joan, also prays that she, Evan, and their three sons will be closer together as a family. On his first day in Congress, Evan introduces himself to his staffers and then given the opportunity to join his greedy boss, Congressman Chuck Long, to co-sponsor his Citizens' Integration of Public Lands Act (CINPLAN) bill. Over the next few days, strange events occur in Evan's life: • Eight vacant lots in Prestige Crest are purchased under his name • Ancient tools, eight lots of land, and gopher wood are delivered to his house that he did not order • A man claiming to be God appears everywhere he goes • Pairs of animals start following him around everywhere he goes • His hair and beard grows uncontrollably regardless of how many times he shaves • The number 614 starts appearing in various forms throughout his daily routines Evan realizes the number refers to verse 14 in chapter 6 of the Book of Genesis, where God instructed Noah to build an ark in preparation for a coming flood. God appears to Evan and asks him to build an ark because a flood is coming. Though initially hesitating, Evan starts building the ark on the vacant lots by using the tools and materials provided, giving him an opportunity to spend more time with his sons, but Joan sees this as a midlife crisis. While Evan still maintains his career in Congress, his changing appearance alienates his staffers and God and the animals who appear and follow him become more disturbing. God provides Evan a robe and warns him that the flood will come by mid-day on the 22nd of September. When God indefinitely exposes Evan's new appearance during the public introduction of the CINPLAN bill, Long suspends him from Congress after Evan tries to explain his mission and warn the other congressmen about the upcoming flood. Joan falsely believes that Evan has gone insane and departs with her sons, leaving Evan to continue building the ark alone. Meanwhile, God disguises himself as a waiter at the restaurant, where he tells Joan that she should see this as an opportunity for the entire family to be closer. Joan is inspired by God's meaning and decides to return to Evan to help him finish building the ark together to prepare for the flood. On September 22, Evan's three staffers finds evidence that Long has turned Prestige Crest over to private investors by damming off a nearby water source, but he had cut corners in building the dam. They suspect Long would do the same with the CINPLAN bill. With the ark finally complete, the animals board two by two. However, the police threaten to demolish the ark with a wrecking ball as it violates land codes. When only a small amount of rain falls, Evan realizes that the flood would be the result of Long's dam failing. When the dam actually fails, the entire community manages to board the ark and all the houses of Prestige Crest are destroyed. The ark then rides the floodwaters into Washington, D.C. by riding through the National Mall until it reaches its final destination in front of the Capitol, which interrupts the vote for Long's CINPLAN bill. Evan confronts Long on his accountability for the cost-cutting that lead up to the dam's failure, inciting the other congressmen to turn against him. The voting for the CINPLAN bill is suspended due to an investigation of Long's profiteering behavior. Evan is reinstated to Congress and all the animals return to their natural habitats. With his appearance returned to normal, Evan re-encounters God during a family hike in the mountains. God states that Evan had successfully changed his world by growing closer to his family because the key to changing the world is a single Act of Random Kindness (ARK). During the film's closing credits, God issues a new commandment to the outgoing audience: "Thou shalt do the dance", which is followed by the film's cast and crew members dancing to the C+C Music Factory song "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)". ==Cast==

Screenplay The film's screenplay was originally titled The Passion of the Ark and was written by Bobby Florsheim and Josh Stolberg. It became the subject of a seven-studio bidding war in April 2004. The script was sold to Sony Pictures in a deal worth $2.5 million plus a percentage of the profits, a record for a spec script from previously unproduced writers. Universal Studios immediately made a deal to co-produce the script with Sony Pictures and have Steve Oedekerk rewrite it into the sequel to Bruce Almighty. Oedekerk had been involved with Bruce Almighty as an executive producer and co-writer of the screenplay (with Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe, who wrote the story). The studio later discarded the original The Passion of the Ark script completely, and Oedekerk fashioned a new script from scratch (only he received final credit on the finished film as screenwriter). Jim Carrey was asked to reprise his role as Bruce in the sequel and, when he declined, director Tom Shadyac convinced Steve Carell to accept the leading role. Shadyac, reflecting on the first film, stated "[Carell] delivered some of the funniest stuff in the movie. We thought, 'Why not take that character and spin him off into a different film?'" This marked the third time a sequel has been made to a film for which Carrey declined to reprise his role—the others being Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd and Son of the Mask. Budget The initial budget, at approximately $140 million, led Evan Almighty to become the most expensive comedy film ever made. Added costs such as set construction, visual effects, and problems with filming multiple animals in a controlled location brought the budget up to $175 million. Once marketing for the film was also included, the film's entire spend was estimated to be around $200 million. Universal defended the cost of the film, saying it was "designed as a four-quadrant film, and therefore poised for bigger [box office] returns than typical comedies." Ark design and construction Construction of the ark began in January 2006 and the scenes involving the ark were shot in a Crozet, Virginia, subdivision called Old Trail. For his costumes, designers spoke with textile experts, researched historical information on the clothing that was likely worn at the time of Noah, and used aged fibers for the clothing. Visual effects For the CGI used throughout the film, companies Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H) developed different parts of the film. R&H focused on the animation of the animals, while ILM completed the final scene of the ark rushing through Washington, D.C. Lindy De Quattro, the ILM associate visual effects supervisor, revealed that "This is the first time where we had to do a whole series of shots that were happening mid-day, where you were going to get a really long look at the water and what it was doing." ==Marketing==

In late May, during production, the media learned that director Tom Shadyac angrily complained to producers, saying "I'm not seeing any ads, and I don't know why. I'm not getting answers. People are giving me information that isn't true ... I'm only hearing about all the other summer movies, and nothing about mine." Shadyac also fired his marketing consultants that he had used for prior films due to his thoughts over the mishandling of the marketing. He later apologized for his outburst with producers, and claimed that it was as a result of his nervousness before the film's release. held exclusive screenings of the film in mid-June in fifty cities in the United States to reach religious moviegoers. Grace Hill provided free screenings to blogs in exchange for publicity on the blogs. The first trailer of the film premiered on March 29, 2007, during a marathon of The Office, which also stars Steve Carell and Ed Helms. For online advertising, an eight-minute clip of a scene was released on Yahoo! two days before the release of the film. The film was also an official sponsor for the 2007 Tooth & Nail Tour along with Best Buy, PureVolume, AbsolutePunk and White Castle. == Environmental impact ==

Director Tom Shadyac felt the film reflected environmental themes of how humans are stewards of God's creation. In keeping with the themes, Evan Almighty became NBC Universal's first film to offset the production's carbon emissions. Producer Michael Bostick revealed how the emissions were offset: We worked closely with The Conservation Fund to calculate our carbon emissions from what we used on the movie—whether from vehicles used or any of the construction equipment. Once our carbon emissions were calculated, we planted trees that will effectively zero out our climate-changing footprint left behind from the movie. In addition, rather than simply demolishing sets, Shadyac tried to donate houses built for the production and had the Ark set recycled, by donating materials to Habitat for Humanity. Shadyac also required that when Industrial Light & Magic developed the climactic scene, that the CGI flood did not appear to harm any of the trees in the scene. which focused on the importance of conservation during production of the film. Donations were taken at the website for The Conservation Fund, which paid for the planting of 15,000 trees. ==Animal welfare==

s being trained for filming The American Humane Association oversaw the 177 species of animals that were used in the film. The American Humane Association gave its permission for the film to display "No animals were harmed in the making of this movie" over the closing credits. PETA accused the film's producers of using animals that had previously been abused. Two chimpanzees who appear in the film, Cody and Sable, were surrendered by their owner to settle a lawsuit that documented allegations of beatings and mistreatment. PETA was also critical of Birds & Animals Unlimited, the primary animal supplier to the film, for alleged serious and continuing violations of the U.S. Animal Welfare Act, including failure to comply with veterinary care requirements and failure to provide shelter from heat and sunlight, which PETA details and claims it can document. The film's director, Tom Shadyac, said of PETA's criticisms "many of these animals have been rescued from other situations and can't be returned to the wild" and "There's a certain amount of hypocrisy whenever you work with animals, even to show, which we hope we're showing, that respect of all of God's creation ... I don't know. I respect their criticism." A Universal Studios spokesperson declared: The live animals used in the filming of Evan Almighty were supplemented by a great number of computer-generated animals, but it would have been impossible to depend on CGI exclusively as some key scenes in the film demonstrate the need for peaceful and productive co-existence between man and animals. One of the most prominent, inescapable messages of the film is the responsibility that humans have to protect and care for animals. ==Release==

Theatrical The premiere for the film was held on June 10, 2007, and guests included Adam Sandler, David Hasselhoff, Kate Flannery, Eddie Murphy, Kevin James, and Mindy Kaling, among others. Home media Evan Almighty was released on HD DVD and DVD on October 9, 2007, by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and was the fourth-most rented DVD of the week earning $6.4 million. In the film's first six weeks of release, it earned $27,676,676 in domestic DVD sales. The HD DVD and DVD's special features include deleted scenes, outtakes, cast interviews, and footage of the animals used in the film. The film was later released on Blu-ray on August 7, 2012. Proposed ban Malaysia's Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM) called for a ban on the film, claiming it is offensive to Islam. Secretary-General Maamor Osman claimed that the film was depicting the great flood as comedy and characterized God with the portrayal of a human, both of which are considered blasphemous in Islam. Similarly there was some public protest against Bruce Almighty being shown in theaters, but that film was released on DVD and was also shown on television broadcasts. Evan Almighty was still released in Malaysia on August 23, 2007. ==Reception==

Box office Though Evan Almighty was well-hyped, especially with churchgoers, and had double the budget of Bruce Almighty, it performed under expectations. On its first weekend, it opened in 5,200 screens in 3,604 theaters and earned $31.1 million (on its first two days the film earned $11.4 million followed by $8.3 million on Sunday). Nikki Rocco, the president of distribution for Universal Pictures declared, "We never expected it to be much higher ... it is not unusual for family films to open at a level like this and build. This film will have legs." Internationally, the film also opened in first place in Russia and Ukraine, earning $1.5 million in Russia with 329 venues and $179,000 in Ukraine at 64 locations. The gross in the opening weekends for the two countries was 10% and 11%, respectively, bigger than the opening for Bruce Almighty. Critical response Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. Critic Richard Roeper commended Jim Carrey for declining to reprise his role in "three of the worst sequels of all time", which included Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, Son of the Mask and Evan Almighty. He continued: "Evan Almighty is a paper-thin alleged comedy with a laugh drought of biblical proportions, and a condescendingly simplistic spiritual message." Several reviewers credit Carell's performance to significantly improving the humor of the film. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave it 1 out of 4, calling it "shamelessly juvenile, pseudo-religious, mock-sincere" and "not that funny". He praised Carell "who projects the movie’s only sense of mischief. But it’s too little and too late." He later included it on his list of the Worst Movies of 2007. Accolades Before Evan Almighty was released, it was nominated for "Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet" at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. Competing against seven other nominees, it lost to Transformers. At the Golden Raspberry Awards Evan Almighty was nominated for the Worst Prequel or Sequel, but lost to Daddy Day Camp. ==Soundtrack==

}} Evan Almighty: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture debuted in 2007. The soundtrack debuted on June 19, 2007. "Revolution" was performed by Rascal Flatts in the film. • Note: Tracks one, two and fourteen to sixteen are taken from the film while tracks three through thirteen are inspired by the film. ==References==