How do you bring a beloved 150-year-old story that inspired the world’s longest-running musical (seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and 21 languages) to the big screen? And, perhaps even more important, why?

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Like everyone who was alive during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis (I was eight), I remember the rising count of days the 52 Americans spent in captivity, the ominous pictures on TV of angry Iranians spouting their grievances, the yellow ribbons tied everywhere to express our national concern.

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Considering the fact that I’m a Christian, it may seem strange that the Jewish holy day of Tisha B’Av speaks to me so much. Tisha B’Av is all about mourning, and I think this day and its practices could teach Christians some needed lessons about grief.

Three years ago I got laid off from a job I’d held for 15 years. Two days after I was blindsided by this news, a Christian friend asked me a question that struck me as out of place: “What are you going to do now?” As if I already had a plan. As if 48 hours were enough to reconfigure a career. I’m sure I answered with something polite and hopeful – it’s what this guy was looking for, after all – but what I really wanted to respond was, “Cry my eyes out, watch too much TV, and probably drink too much wine.”

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Despite the beautiful scenery and the uber-adorable leading chimp, the takeaway for me is still this: chimpanzees eat monkeys!

Chimpanzee

For the past three years, Disneynature has released a new nature documentary on Earth Day (or pretty close to it), including Earth (2009), Oceans (2010), and African Cats (2011). This year, their lens lands on the African rainforest and an impossibly adorable chimpanzee named Oscar.

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It's romantic comedy time -- one that's delightful and one that's downright creepy.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

The premise is preposterous. A Yemeni sheikh (Amr Waked) thinks his favorite pastime of salmon fishing—which he enjoys when staying at his palatial manor in Scotland—would bring peace and unity to the embattled people of his homeland. His arid homeland.

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This Means War

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