Rising Stars

I'm excited about "Rising Stars."  We shot the movie last August and finished earlier this year.  Doberman Entertainment is nearly done with the deal for distribution and it will be exciting.  (I'll announce when they tell me I can the specifics).

We shot this movie here in the DFW area, mostly at the University of Texas at Arlington.  What's really fun about this film is the cast-- these guys across the board were awesome.  We have Kyle Riabko, who's playing on Broadway right now.  Lauren Ashley Carter-- one of the best young actor's I've ever worked with.  We've got Fisher Stevens, who just won the Academy Award (producing a documentary).  Barry Corbin... the lovely Catherine Mary Stewart... And Rebecca St. James.  Rebecca is really doing well moving from grammy award winning Christian singer to film actor.  There's Leon Thomas III who's landed a sweet role on television.  As well as Natalie Hall who's done the same.

The movie is about high schoolers caught up in a national talent search, squaring off against each other in the Finals, to see who will get the fame and fortune contract.  The two categories are Musical Acts, and Filmmakers.  Three musical acts pair up with three filmmakers for one week of collaboration and competition.  The movie is that week.

The film is targeted as a family film for the secular audience and I think there's something in there for everyone.  Premieres and dates will be forthcoming shortly.

1979

1979.  Jimmy Carter is nearing the end of his presidency.  Us teens are wearing bell bottoms and funky color combinations.  As a church-going teen, I'm listening to cassettes and records (never had but a few 8 tracks-- hated songs being broken up in the middle) from Amy Grant, the Imperials, Dallas Holm and Praise to the harder stuff-- DeGarmo and Key, Petra and even a little Rez Band.  A friend at school introduced me to Keith Green's music and he quickly became my fav over the next year.

A quick side note-- Dana Key of DeGarmo and Key passed away a few days ago.  He produced a lot of music at Ardent Studios in Nashville and we were fortunate to use some of that music on "A Promise Kept."

So the Christian Music industry was at the first stages of massive growth.  Within the next few years after 1979, the record sales, as a genre would overtake Jazz/Blues and start being taken seriously in Nashville.  After 79, it wasn't just a fad that would die out.

So Big Record Business (BRB) took note and jumped in.  Large secular labels started buying the small independent Christian labels.  Budgets became bigger, quality improved.  But Business kills the Ministry aspect and today, it is hard to find (not impossible).  But back then, you had Sparrow being run as a ministry first (thank you Billy Ray) and other labels like "Lamb and Lion" and even Keith Green's own label "Pretty Good Records."

Christian Film is in 1979 right now.  Sony has been buying up some of the key Christian film companies on the distribution side of things.  Fox created Fox Faith, but they've struggled as their strategy of playing it safe by mainly making adaptations of Christian best sellers hasn't exactly worked out.  But Hollywood, like Nashville in 1979, is seeing big dollar signs in the church audience.

So for all those who lament the quality of Christian movies-- don't worry, that will begin to change.  But expect safe messages and production in those movies.  Edgy is going to go away (or be mainly ignored because the indie filmmakers who make it will have no money to do it and will not get any help finding an audience).

I believe you'll start to have some Christian Movie Stars emerge, just like Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith did back then.  It might be the actors, and it might be the filmmakers.  Alex Kendrick is one already.  Rebecca St. James is making strides in crossing over from Christian Rock Star to Christian Movie Star. 

But what worked in 1979 was the engine behind these names.  You might have the odd viral hit, coming up from a groundswell.  But for the most part, the stars of the Christian Film industry might look like a naturally occurring phenomenon, but you'd be surprised how calculated it just is.

You see, even right now, there are huge marketing firms, who look like viral web entities, that make their money by getting paid to promote this Christian movie or that Christian movie star or filmmaker.  Doesn't matter if a film is really good and special-- if that film doesn't hand over some bucks, they won't be pushed in a large organizations Facebook status.  Which is all okay-- it's good business strategy.

I guess the troubling thing is the deception-- pretending to be all about Christian films, but more accurately-- all about the Christian films that have paid to be clients. 

Welcome Christian Film, to the eighties of Christian music.

Big Announcement for "The Imposter!"

You're hearing it here first. "The Imposter" has found a Distribution home. Jeff Rodgers and I have been very picky and have turned down a couple of offers. This is our fourth film and we want to see "The Imposter" succeed, both for the message and for the investors.

PureFlix Entertainment is a perfect match for the movie. They are a faith-based film distributor (currently releasing Rebecca St. James movie "Sarah's Choice") that is very aggressive on getting the movies out and they understand the church market.

We will no longer be selling the movie to churches through our website but will be referring people to PureFlix. They will set a release date (probably sometime in March) and we're very excited.

This answers undoubtedly the number one question we get from the website-- when will the home DVD be available? As soon as we have the exact date, we'll pass that along. But we do expect the movie to be available in Christian bookstores and other retail outlets.

Special Announcement for Rising Stars

I was approached by New York City producer Andrew van den Houten, after he watched "The Imposter" to make a similar movie for the secular high school age. A family movie, driven by music. One of the pleasures I had when making "The Imposter" was being able to combine my love of film and my love of music.

I have grown up on Christian rock. When I was five years old, the records we listened to were Love Song, 2nd Chapter of Acts and later Amy Grant, Keith Green. I listened to easy music like The Imperials and hard music like Rez Band.

So having icons like Kerry Livgren, Jeff Deyo and Kevin Max was a dream come true for me on Imposter. When Andrew basically said go make something like that and has given me a lot of room to do so, I thought it would be great to get another Christian music star to be in this movie. I had met her dad/manager in Nashville last February and he said she was doing more and more movies. So this has really worked out.

Joining our cast for "Rising Stars" is Rebecca St. James. The Australian native has won Dove Awards and has had many hits on the Christian charts. She is starring in several movies that are coming out.

For Rising Stars, she will play the role of "Kari", the dutiful assistant to an uber-agent who is running the whole Rising Stars competition. We are very excited to have her joining our shooting in Dallas-Ft. Worth in August.