Elgin-made faith-based comedy hits theaters this weekend
When Dallas Jenkins directed his first full-length, faith-based film in 2010, it played in a few dozen theaters - nationwide.
When his Elgin-made second one opens Friday, it will play in more than two dozen in the Chicago area alone, and 1,000 theaters across the country.
"The Resurrection of Gavin Stone" will benefit from a massive publicity campaign aided, oddly enough, by the WWE professional wrestling organization. But it also comes at a time when religious movies have made a place for themselves in the multiplex.
"We have the best message in the world. It deserves the most powerful medium in the world," says Jenkins, who makes his main living as media director for the Elgin- and Rolling Meadows-based Harvest Bible Chapel megachurch.
"The Resurrection of Gavin Stone" was produced by a new filmmaking arm of Harvest named Vertical Church Films, though Jenkins scrambled to line up its low-seven-figure financing from various Hollywood sources. The WWE got on board because the movie co-stars wrestler Shawn Michaels.
"Gavin Stone" stars Brett Dalton from TV's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." as a washed-up former child actor who is arrested while visiting his hometown. He's sentenced to community service at a Harvest-like megachurch and talks his way into playing Jesus in the church's Easter play.
The egocentric Gavin bonds with the pastor's daughter (Anjelah Johnson) and tries to reconcile with his estranged father (Waukegan native Neil Flynn). Wrestler Michaels plays an ex-convict, while D.B. Sweeney stars as the pastor.
The past three years have seen the release of "The War Room," "God's Not Dead 2," "Heaven is for Real," "Miracles From Heaven" and other faith-centered films, to say nothing of the big-budget biblical epics "Noah" and "Exodus: Gods and Kings." The current missionary drama "Silence" was directed by Martin Scorsese.
"Art by Christians can be great without sacrificing meaning and impact," Jenkins says. "You can create art from a faith perspective that needs no apology."
Jenkins, whose father Jerry co-authored the best-selling "Left Behind" novels, made his first full-length movie, "What IF?" in 2010. The "It's A Wonderful Life"-style story starred Kevin Sorbo as a playboy who sees what his life would have been like if he had centered it around God and family instead of money and pleasure. It grossed only $850,000.
Soon after it came out, Harvest Pastor James MacDonald hired Jenkins to become Harvest's media director and start making movies.
"Gavin Stone" was shot in June 2015 inside Harvest's Elgin building, at a home on Monroe Street and in several other Fox Valley locations. To film one scene, Jenkins and his crew needed 1,000 extras to fill Harvest's main auditorium. Many stepped forward from the church's congregation. Church volunteers also pitched in behind the scenes.
Actress Johnson describes her experience in Elgin as lighthearted. "In between takes, we were always laughing and cracking jokes. It was like being away at camp."
Johnson had just acted in a similar project, so when Jenkins approached her about doing "Gavin Stone," she hesitated. "I didn't want to be typecast as the girl who only does faith-based films," she says. "But I read the script and it's a great story about love and forgiveness."
Jenkins knows that films like his run the risk of "preaching only to the choir." But he says a well-made faith-based movie can appeal to a broader audience.
"Our film happens to be set in a church," he says, "but that doesn't mean non-churchgoers can't appreciate it."