by Kasia Anderson (Reel.com)

After languishing for months in studio purgatory, director Kevin Smith's religious satire Dogma has finally found salvation. According to reports, Lion's Gate Films has agreed to distribute the Christianity-tweaking comedy after Disney execs found its quasi-blasphemous story too controversial.

The iconoclastic script itself was enough to make Disney skittish, but cries of outrage, mostly from Catholic groups, apparently forced the boycott-paranoid company's hand. The Mouse has been burned before when its subsidiary Miramax distributed taboo-shattering movies like Kids and Priest, and Miramax head Harvey Weinstein described the family entertainment giant to the Los Angeles Times as "too vulnerable in a situation like this."

Weinstein and his brother Bob, however, had faith in Smith's comedy, and last April the pair bypassed their parent company and bought the movie themselves. Until now, the two indie moguls had been seeking another studio to distribute the picture, only to have memories of crowds protesting The Last Temptation of Christ scare all potential backers away.

Ironically, according to Smith, most of the Dogma fuss is coming from people who haven't even seen the film. Buzz from those who've read the script says it may be Smith's best yet, and the all-star cast -- headlined by golden boys Matt Damon and Ben Affleck -- is first-rate. Smith describes the plot as "an apocalyptic road movie" about a duo of fallen angels (the aforementioned golden pair) trying to weasel their way back to heaven by using an "indulgence" -- a sort of antiquated Catholic divine bargaining chip -- without the Big Boss up above noticing.

This is where controversy kettle starts a-percolatin': turns out the Head Man is actually a lady, and Alanis Morissette, no less. Dogma's plot also confronts the Church's more whitewashed tendencies, through Rufus, the thirteenth -- black -- disciple, played by Chris Rock. Smith even slays that most sacred of cows, the issue of abortion, with Linda Fiorentino portraying a non-practicing Catholic/Women's clinic worker who's called upon to stop the fallen angels' blasphemous plans. The director adds still more comic relief courtesy of recurring characters Jay and Silent Bob, he latter played by Smith himself. Add Salma Hayek's stripper-muse, Serendipity, and stir -- you've got an incendiary brew prime for boycotting.

Hogwash, says Smith, who claims the movie is meant to be an exploration of faith, not a Catholic-bashing session. Besides, as he told Reel.com in a recent interview, he is a practicing Catholic himself: "Some people just take their faith for granted and I don't. I like to examine it."