Some notable news to share with your readers: "Creation", the new film about Darwin starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, premieres on Friday, January 22, in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Boston, and Washington, DC.

If there is a strong turnout the opening weekend, the movie will stay in theaters longer, which will generate buzz, which will keep it in theaters longer. And that means more people will see Darwin (and his ideas) presented in a more positive light. So if you can, spread the word!

The movie is based on "Annie's Box" ("Creation: Darwin, His Daughter & Human Evolution" in the U.S.), written by Randal Keynes, Darwin's great-great-grandson. As you can imagine, creationists are already starting to huff and puff about the film. But as NCSE's Genie Scott notes, "Creation" is a "thoughtful, well-made film that will change many views of Darwin held by the public--for the better."

Olivia Judson, in the New York Times, adds: "Too often, Darwin is depicted as a kind of fossil: an old man with a huge beard looking as though he’s 350. It’s refreshing to see him looking young and handsome...more to the point, Bettany shows Darwin as a man rather than icon, imbuing him with life and love, gentleness and anxiety, tears and laughter. This alone makes it an important film."

Author Randal Keynes sums up his great-great-grandfather: "[Darwin's] love for his wife; his observations of his children; his friendships with gardeners, schoolteachers and pigeon fanciers; his fears about death, revolution, bankruptcy, inbreeding...all these things found their way into his theory. He was the most inclusive of thinkers."

Latest coverage in the Times: "Making Darwin the Legend a Man Again" at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/movies/17creation.html?hpw

The "Creation" national run begins on January 22 in these markets:

<>New York City:
Landmark's Sunshine Cinema
Clearview's 1st & 62nd

Los Angeles:
The Landmark

San Francisco Bay Area:
Landmark's Embarcadero Center Cinema (Embarcadero 1, in SF)
Landmark's Shattuck (Berkeley)

Washington, DC
Landmark's E Street Cinema

Boston/Cambridge
Landmark's Kendall Square

Group rates may be available--contact the theater in question.

Want to meet the author, the filmmaker, and/or evolution experts?

January 22: For those in the Bay Area, the Embarcadero Center Cinema (in San Francisco) will host a Q&A panel after the 7:30pm screening on the 22nd, featuring the film's director Jon Amiel, Dr. Eugenie Scott of the NCSE, and Dr. Kevin Padian, Professor of Integrative Biology and Curator in the University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley.

January 23: For those in the Boston/Cambridge area, the Landmark Kendall Square Cinema will host a Q&A panel after the 7pm screening of the film, featuring Dr. Kenneth Miller (biologist, Brown University; author of one of the most widely used high school biology textbooks in the U.S. and author of "Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul"), and Dr. Karl Giberson (physicist at Eastern Nazarene College and author of many books on evolution, including "Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution").

For more info about the movie, trailers, schedules, etc., check:

Darwin on the Big Screen http://ncse.com/evolution/darwin-gets-hollywood-treatment
The official site www.creationthemovie.com
The Facebook page www.facebook.com/pages/CREATION-The-Movie/39212784860
The Twitter feed http://twitter.com/Creation_Movie