The first controversy of the annual Television Critics Association press tour, rather surprisingly, involved The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and cable network TNT.
TNT is about to go into production on an adaptation of the Zane Grey novel "Riders of the Purple Sage" - a book which one critic in attendance here called "one of the great Mormon-bashing books of all time."The book, a piece of fiction that has been made into three previous movies - the last in 1941 - is the tale of a feisty Mormon woman (played here by Amy Madigan) in a small southern Utah settlement whose wealth and single status make her the target of evil intentions by local church leaders. To her rescue comes a mysterious gunfighter (played by Ed Harris) who is virulently anti-Mormon.
Again, although Harris calls the book and the movie "historic," there's no history involved. It's pure fiction.
"Zane wasn't a big fan of the Mormon Church," Harris said. "And in the book, I mean, it's a religious community. They're not identified as Mormons."
That, however, is utterly false. The first reference to "Mormons" comes in the fourth paragraph of the book, and it's the first of many.
And Harris' comment seems particularly disingenous given that he not only expressed his love for the "great story" in the book but had optioned the rights to it and is one of the producers of the cable movie.
Allen Sabinson, TNT's chief of original programming, pointed out that "Riders of the Purple Sage was written in 1914.
"Zane Grey's feelings about the Mormons are substantially different than where we are here in 1995 - 1914 was a lot closer to when the Mormons, at one point being a polygamous society, faced a lot of ostracization," he said. "That's far less of a relevant thing today.
"The book and the (screen)play never refer to the word `Mormon,' it refers to the word `cult,' " he continued - obviously in error, at least as far as the book is concerned. And referring to the church in the movie as a "cult" is no great favor, particularly in light of some of Harris' other comments.
"They're not identified as `Mormons' " in the movie, Harris said. "Neither are we trying to hide the fact that it's an established church in southern Utah in 1870, and a lot of guys have beards and they dress in dark suits and they have more than one wife."
He was, to some extent, joking. But there's little doubt that, even without using the word "Mormon" the film will leave the indelible impression that this "evil cult" represents the LDS Church.
In attempting to defend the movie, Harris inadvertantly set off a second controversy.
"The Mormon Church read the script and they gave us their blessings to shoot in Utah. They asked us to change a couple of words, which we're going to do," Harris said.
But that led critics to question why exactly the movie's producers needed the church's permission to shoot in Utah - at which point Harris reversed his position.
"I don't know if we needed permission," Harris said.
"That's not accurate. We did not need their permission," said Charles Haid, who will direct the cable movie.
When it was pointed out that that was indeed what Harris had said, he backed down. "I was wrong," Harris said. "We didn't need permission. It was a courtesy of TNT showing the Mormon Church the script."
He said that someone at TNT "has a close relationship with the head of the Mormon PR system" and passed a copy of the script along.
And all involved in the project were exceedingly vague about what exactly they had been asked to change.
"Well, first of all we shouldn't call them Mormons. They're members of The Church of Latter-day Saints," said Haid - coming somewhat close to getting the name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, correct.
"It wasn't so much the sense of asking us to do this in censoring the film. We're just trying to be sensitive to something that might lead in certain directions. And I don't really want to comment on what words they wanted us to change and things like that, or open up that issue," continued Haid, who was positively testy about the whole issue.
This won't be the first time Haid has directed a movie in Utah, nor is it the first one that has somehow involved the LDS Church. He was at the helm of "In the Line of Duty: Siege at Marion," an NBC movie depicting the bombing of a Kamas LDS chapel and the standoff with the Singer/Swapp clan.
Haid said that script was also passed along to the church's Public Communications department, and that he got "some great comments from them."
He said he has "great respect for them, and I have great respect for their church. So it certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with Mormon-bashing in any way."
Earlier this year TNT presented its production of "Avenging Angel," a wholly fictional account of Mormon assassins in the 19th century that included historical figures like Brigham Young in a ridiculous, violent story.
And Haid went way out on a limb defending "Riders of the Purple Sage."
"The issue we're dealing with is the universal issue," he said. "We're redoing `The Crucible.' I think that if every religious community were to have to become (politically correct) . . . many, many of the great films we have would not be able to be made.
"It would be the same thing as saying you can't do anything about the Inquisition or about Nazi Germany. They would be questioning `Schindler's List;' they'd be questioning the Native American series (of TNT movies). They'd be questioning everything."
Once again, a rather disingenous answer. To compare movies based on actual historical events - the Inquistition, the Holocaust - to a fictional story written by an admittedly anti-Mormon writer is ridiculous.
Of course, it's impossible to say exactly how TNT's version of "Riders of the Purple Sage" will turn out. The cable movie is scheduled to begin shooting in Moab on Aug. 7.