by CHRIS LEE
“Son of God” starring Diogo Morgado as Jesus was adapted into a feature film from the History Channel’s “The Bible” miniseries. PHOTO/Casey Crafford/20th Century Fox
Randall Wallace didn’t expect a rock-star reception when he went on the road to promote his faith-based drama “Heaven Is for Real” ahead of its Easter-weekend release.
Yet at the First Assembly of God Church in Phoenix, 9,000 congregants greeted the filmmaker with a standing ovation. A few days later, 11,000 boisterous students packed a convocation in the sports arena at Liberty University, a Christian college in Lynchburg, Va., where Wallace, best known for writing the 1995 battle biopic “Braveheart” and directing the equestrian drama “Secretariat,” spoke about “Heaven Is for Real.”
Recent faith-based and Bible-inspired films such as “Noah,” “Son of God,” and “God’s Not Dead” have galvanized Hollywood with robust showings at the box office. One analyst dubbed 2014 “the year of the biblical movie.” But with the surge of major movie studios, marquee stars and prestige filmmakers lining up to shoot faith-based projects, Hollywood is finding it isn’t always easy to usher viewers from the church pew to the multiplex.
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“All these different churches gave it their seal of approval,” said David A.R. White, a producer of “God’s Not Dead” and co-founder of Pure Flix Entertainment, the film’s distributor.
That happened because Pure Flix set up screenings for 8,000 pastors in the two months leading up to the film’s theatrical debut.
“Some people say, ‘You’re losing a lot of money with the pre-screenings.’ But for us,” White said, “the pastors are the gatekeepers to the church body. If they believe in what we’re doing, they can talk about it from the pulpit.”