Religious America Snubs Darwin Film: Producer

The producer of a new film about Charles Darwin says he hasn't landed a US distribution deal because Americans can't stand the theory of evolution, the Daily Mail reports. Creation, the story of Darwin's struggle between reason and faith as he wrote The Origin of Species, has opened the Toronto Film Festival and sold to several other countries. "It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America," says Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas.

A Christian film review site has linked the theory of evolution to Nazi crimes and called Darwin "a racist, a bigot and a 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder"—opinions that stun Thomas. "It's quite difficult for we in the UK to imagine religion in America," he says. "We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the US, outside of New York and LA, religion rules." (More Charles Darwin stories.)