reputation that faith-based films have instead of cleaning bathrooms. A
developed over the years.
lot of the humor comes from his
There’s a lot of debate about the
navigating his way through the
niche of faith-based films. Many say
Christianese and church culture,
the label itself is divisive; label a film
and the heart and meaning comes
“faith-based,” they say, and it greatly from Gavin’s own transformation
limits your audience. Others point
as he learns more about Jesus and
out that the term is appropriate, but
experiences church community.
the problem is that so many films in
Note the word “humor.” While the
that genre are poor quality that it’s
film definitely has a strong message,
become a ghetto. But interestingly,
there’s a lot of laughs, and that’s very
marketers and Christian audiences
rare in the faith genre. So we knew
love the term because it
allows them to communicate While the film definitely has a strong
directly to each other—it’s
message, there’s a lot of laughs, and
good shorthand.
that’s very rare in the faith genre.
This is what intrigued
Blumhouse Productions (Get
Out, Split, The Purge), a monumentally that could be a way to stand out.
successful horror film company, and
We also loved the notion that Gavin
WWE, a monumentally successful
Stone was a church outsider. To that
wrestling company, to work with
end, while Christian audiences could
me on “The Resurrection of Gavin
appreciate the accurate depiction of
Stone” along with my church in Elgin,
church world, non-churchgoers could
IL. We all had different motivations,
identify with the main character. So
but our goal was the same: make a
we thought the movie could pick up
unique film that would fill a need in
some of the non-faith audience.
the faith-based genre. And if it proved
Casting was another area where
successful, we could make more like it. we pursued a different approach.
The storyline of the film is perfect
We tried to pull people from a wide
for that goal. Gavin Stone is a
variety of audience bases. Brett
washed-up former child star who is
Dalton is popular on Agents of
sentenced to 200 hours of community SHIELD; Anjelah Johnson is a famous
service at his hometown mega-
comedian; Neil Flynn is a star on
church. When he sees they’re
one of the most popular sitcoms
putting on a big Easter production,
in America, The Middle, and our
he pretends to be a Christian so he
X-factor was Shawn Michaels, one of
can work off his hours playing Jesus
the most famous wrestlers of all time.
Solutions 17