Rick Santorum may not be the president of the United States, but he’s about to become the king of Hollywood. Or a Dallas-based, Christian version of it, anyway.

The former Pennsylvania senator has been named CEO of EchoLight Studios, a production company that aims to make “honest, uplifting content” like 2011’s Soul Surfer, only without “water[ing] down the truth.” Hit the jump to learn about Santorum’s new gig, and to watch the trailer for EchoLight’s first theatrical release.

EchoLight and its new CEO are far from the first to try to tap into the Christian movie market. Even the major studios have taken notice; it was Sony’s faith-based division Affirm Films that distributed Soul Surfer. But Santorum believes they still aren’t getting it quite right.

Even in faith-based films, Hollywood tends to water down the truth. Soul Surfer was a good film, but it didn’t accurately portray faith in that young lady’s life and how she overcame what she had to overcome. I don’t want to preach to anybody, I just want to portray faith as it really is, and we’re going to be telling a lot of true-life stories, and we’re going to make them comfortable even for people who are not of faith, because they are honest. That’s the challenge for us, and it’s what Hollywood tends to shy away from.

What Santorum hopes to deliver at EchoLight is a set of high-quality productions with “inspirational and uplifting” messages. “Dallas can become the Hollywood of the faith-and-family movie market,” he said. “And the keys are great content and economic success using money from all over to build out the industry and distribute an authentic product truthful to the faith in people’s lives.”

Specifically, that means movies like EchoLight’s first theatrical release The Redemption of Henry Myers, a Western about a bank robber who’s saved (physically and spiritually) by a kind widow who takes him in. The film is expected to hit sometime this year. Check out the trailer below:

EchoLight’s other upcoming features include Hoovey, a fact-based drama directed by Sean McNamara (Soul Surfer) and starring Patrick Warburton and Lauren Holly; and Seasons of Gray, a dramatic, not-at-all-Andrew-Lloyd-Webber-esque retelling of the Biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors.

Discuss: What do you think of Santorum’s new job?