IMAX documentary gets cold shoulder over evolution theorizing

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:35 p.m. ET March 29, 2005LOS ANGELES - One of the IMAX theaters that initially declined to show the film "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea," with its references to evolution, has now decided to run it because of the controversy it has stirred.

Van Romans, director of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, says he received 75 letters and e-mails asking him to screen the film.

Romans says the museum originally decided against doing so because other documentaries were better. Several other science museum executives also say test audiences rated the film poorly.

The filmmakers, though, say executives at some IMAX theaters in the South told them they worried the movie might offend conservative Christians because of its references to evolution.