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#FAITH BASED SCREENPLAYS WANTED MOVIE#

That said, it's not an unreasonable argument that churches to this day put an awful lot of the responsibility for a relationship's success on women and too often cross that line into potentially endorsing submitting to domestic violence/abuse. I found myself more than a little bit troubled by Fireproof, though I had no problem believing that how I believed the film could be taken was not how the Kendrick's intended it to be taken. While I'll confess that I found myself cringing a couple of times at what I was hoping were inadvertent racial stereotypes, If you've read my other reviews of Kendrick films, then you'll know that their 'relationship' films tend to be my least favorite. When she's challenged by Miss Clara to adopt a prayer strategy for her family, suddenly Elizabeth's life begins to change and Tony comes face-to-face with some decisions that may determine the future of his family.įor the first time, the Kendrick Brothers are working with a nearly all African-American cast while still telling a rather universal story. The 'war room' is a room devoted to a disciplined prayer life.

With her marriage seemingly on the rocks, Elizabeth's life begins to change when she encounters a new real estate client, Miss Clara (Karen Abercrombie), an elderly woman whose home offers a rather unique feature - a war room. Danielle (Alena Pitts), Tony and Elizabeth's daughter, is caught in the middle. Tony's relentless pursuit of success has put a strain on his marriage, while Elizabeth is downward spiraling into bitterness and apathy. Stallings) and Elizabeth Jordan (Priscilla Evans Shirer), a seemingly idyllic couple with successful careers, a lovely daughter and a beautiful home. While you could become captivated by the story in Facing the Giants whether you were a person of faith or not, if you're not a person of faith it's hard to imagine a reason you'd find yourself stumbling into the multi-plex to catch a film centered nearly 100% around the matter of our prayer lives. It's a quality indie film, unabashedly faith-based and unashamedly preachy.

The truth is that I think War Room is the kind of film that the Kendrick Brothers truly want to make. While I personally do somewhat lament the loss of the wider net cast by the more universally themed and story-driven Facing the Giants, there's still something refreshing about a filmmaker finding their true voice and remaining faithful to it. This brings us to War Room, the latest Kendrick Brothers film, as usual Alex directs and both he and brother Stephen co-write, a TriStar Pictures release hitting theaters on August 28th and featuring their highest production budget yet at $3 million.Ĭloser in tone to Fireproof than Facing the Giants, War Room is an unapologetically faith-based film that may very well be the Kendrick Brothers' preachiest film yet but it's a preachiness that will resonate with faith-based moviegoers and those who've come to appreciate the brothers and their ability to weave real faith into real life. In 2011, the Kendrick Brothers gave us Courageous, which featured an extravagant on their terms $2 million production budget and grossed over $34 million at the box-office. While Facing the Giants occasionally looked like a low-budget indie, it resonated with the public and Hollywood listened.įireproof followed with a slightly elevated production budget of $500,000 and box-office receipts of over $32 million, partly on the strength of star Kirk Cameron, and the film spawned a growing number of ancillary ministry outreaches including books, Bible lessons, marital aids and a host of other products. With a less than six-figure budget, Facing the Giants brought in over $10 million and announced to Hollywood that Americans were ready to see quality faith-based cinema. While Facing the Giants was their second film, being preceded by the even more low-budget Flywheel, it was the film that launched the careers of the Kendrick Brothers and their Sherwood Baptist Church-based Sherwood Pictures.

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While there certainly were exceptions, up to the point of Facing the Giants Christian cinema pretty much had the reputation of being low-budget, low talent, light plot and heavy evangelizing without a story that would attract anyone outside the front pew.įacing the Giants truly changed things and turned Alex and Stephen Kendrick into beacons of light for a faith-based film industry that wanted desperately to grow but didn't quite know how to make it happen. Facing the Giants put on display a faith that was fully lived into and not just squeaky clean people saying squeaky clean things about their squeaky clean God in ways that anybody who wasn't squeaky clean would find repulsive.

#FAITH BASED SCREENPLAYS WANTED MOVIE#

I can still remember sitting in the movie theater watching Facing the Giants and thinking to myself 'Finally, a Christian filmmaker who understands that making a faith-based film is about more than simply preaching to the choir.'

Faith based screenplays wanted