The studio is focused on producing and distributing ‘faith-based’ films. EchoLight is reported to be on the verge of sealing a €15 million deal to fund their productions.

The Christian market has become one of increasing interest to filmmakers and studios in recent times. The evangelical audience helped The Blind Side achieve massive financial success, earning over $250 million (almost €200 million) at the US box office. Surfing ‘true story’ Soul Surfer also enjoyed a healthy return as a result of its Christian themes.

Sony Pictures has established a dedicated label called ‘Affirm’ to produce and release films for the evangelical market.

Talking to the Hollywood Reporter about his new position, Santorum says “there’s a lot of good family movies produced in Hollywood, but in almost every one of them there’s a scene where, as a dad with younger kids, I say, ‘Why did they put that gratuitous sex, or language, or violence in there?’

"To me, it diminishes the film, so we won't be doing that... Even in faith-based films, Hollywood tends to water down the truth...I just want to portray faith as it really is”.

The Republican politician and attorney Santorum had attempted to earn his party’s Presidential nomination during the 2012 campaign. However, he lost the internal nomination process to Mitt Romney, with Santorum’s strongly conservative and evangelical Christian rhetoric and policies alienating many party members.

Santorum has attracted controversy for his opposition to same-sex marriage and vocal rejection of climate change consensus, believing instead in a policy of ‘drill everywhere’.