The most recent news item on Rick Santorum‘s website is the former U.S. senator’s enthusiastic endorsement of Mitt Romney for president of the United States. But the runner-up for the 2012 GOP nomination is back in the headlines: He’s the new CEO of EchoLight Studios, a faith-based production, distribution, marketing and financing company that has released eight straight-to-video films since its founding in 2011. The Dallas-based company has four films in postproduction including The Redemption of Henry Myers, which this fall will be its first theatrical release. “To me, this is a natural extension of a lot of work I’ve been doing,” Santorum told the Wall Street Journal. “One of the things you run into in politics is that you’re downstream from the culture; it’s a huge influence in what goes on in society.”He reportedly will do everything from reading scripts to weighing acquisitions for films in the $2M-$2.5M range that target “soccer moms” ages 35-55 who drive minivans and listen to Christian radio. “I’m not a film producer, but clearly there’s a lot of synergy there,” he told WSJ. “I have a brand; I have opportunities to meet with the influencers in the conservative/Christian community.
