The Erwin Brothers, Christian Blockbusters and the New Roman Road

As I re-post this article from 2015, Jon and Andy's new film "I Can Only Imagine" sits at number 2 in the Box Office behind the phenomenal "Black Panther" and this $7M Indie has grossed $17M its opening weekend! That's a very impressive Box Office feat and I'm happy for this team primarily because of all the filmmakers out there attempting Faith-based movies, these guys -- in my mind -- are doing it the best; telling solid stories, with quality actors and with high production values and artistry. And while "Woodlawn" faltered at the box office, it was still a fantastic film and despite Jon's early predictions about how releasing on the heels of "War Room" would be a positive result for them, it turned out Christian audiences can only rally their churches into so many films per quarter.

Anyway, enjoy this interview with Jon Erwin and get an inside look as to what drives their successful film philosophy...

Movie magic. The Erwin Brothers are at it again. After grabbing our hearts with the poignant “October Baby” (2011) and then tickling our funny bones with “Mom’s Night Out” (2014) Jon and Andy deliver a powerful and moving film to the theaters on October 16th: “Woodlawn”

DAVID ACUFF: As I watched the DVD Screener the first 15 minutes was an inspiring video that your team put together about the state of the Christian Film industry, so let’s launch into that. Tell us what is this “New Roman Road”?

JON ERWIN: Well, I believe film is the New Roman Road. God has put Andy and I inside the Entertainment Industry where we get a unique view that not many people get. And when you get inside the Entertainment Business and you understand its power you get a very - at least in me - you get a very strong sense that you have figure this thing out. We have to figure out how to use this medium for the Gospel. Did you know there are ten movie theaters opening every day in China. There’s more cell phones now than people on the earth. People using those cell phones have more access to data than drinking water. And also with this mass exodus into cities, more people live in cities now than rural areas than ever before. And with that is coming this huge boom in infrastructure, in entertainment infrastructure and you just understand that this is this incredibly connected mechanism of communication. By far the most powerful and pervasive that has ever been invented. And the cool thing about it is that America provides the product. 

The world has learned to consume entertainment at unprecedented rate. 30% increase in the last 5 years, 30% increase last year in China in terms of Box Office. But the world has not yet learned to create the product. So, America is the product provider to the world. And we not only shape our own culture, we shape the culture of the world. And so you look at that and you’re like “we have to be involved in this” and then you realize that America really only exports its biggest films. On a grand scale we call them “Blockbusters.” And so the global impact that we’ve had from film on a very small scale — we’ve tasted it with some of the Christian Films that have been done — could be exponentially scaled. And we could quite literally send the Gospel around the world faster than it’s ever gone, wider than it’s ever been spread using this New Roman Road. So that’s what we say that the message is sacred, not the mechanism of delivery. 

The mechanism of delivery changes and I think whenever there’s a new mechanism to get the Gospel out we owe it to every generation of Christians before us to go take it to those people to pioneer — the Printing Press or Martin Luther and his translation of the Bible or Radio or Television. You know, we’ve been Pioneers. Technology has been a big part of spreading the Gospel. And I think this is just that new piece of technology that we have to be involved in. The trouble is we have to dream a little bit bigger. We have to really dream about a movie that will compete. A movie, television show or a series of films that will compete not with other Christian Films but would begin to compete with “50 Shades of Gray” and “Jurassic World” and “Star Wars” and we have the numbers. There’s nothing stopping us, except a unified strategy and sheer force of will. And I think that’s what has been lacking, but I do believe that it’s possible and we’re chasing it with everything we have with Woodlawn. 

And you know what excites me, the reason I’m so excited about being alive today, we did the Liberty convocation and I told 14,000 students — you know my former Pastor David Ply (sp?) loved to preach on this — that the last sign of the end times is that this Gospel will be taken to every nation. To the whole world as a testimony, and then the end will come (Matthew 24). And what I told them is “Do you realize that we are the first generation that actually has that real potential? We can take the Gospel for the first time to the entire world.” And that has never been available before and it is available to us. And so, the Bible says that it is required of a steward that they be found faithful. We have been stewarded with the times with the technology with the ability to take the Gospel further than every generation before us combined. And what are we gonna do with it? I think it’s time we get aggressive and play offense and dream big and take some risks to get the Gospel to the world. That’s really what we’re doing. “Woodlawn” is the first film in that line of thinking for us. And it’s exciting to plough that field. 

DA: And I appreciate you guys putting your money where your mouth is and where your passion lies and leading along this New Roman Road, it is an exciting time. Now, with this being your third film, has the filmmaking process gotten any easier?

JON: The process is different on every film. I think the process would be easier if we were making the same kind of movie every time. But, unfortunately Andy and I keep making movies bigger. And so “Mom’s Night Out” was four times the scale of “October Baby” and “Woodlawn” was four times the scale of “Mom’s Night Out” and so the films keep getting bigger. And that comes from a sheer passion that I really think that we can compete and I believe that it’s time to put the Gospel on a bigger stage. We call it “Epic Faith” — it’s time to hold firmly to a film that’s not offensive but a bold presentation of the Gospel. But, have that presentation done with scale and as much excellence as we can pack into it. Because there’s no difference in the ticket price for people that go see the movie versus what it cost to make the film. 

The brutal facts are we’re just being outdone in our generation. And the only way to change that is dig really deep and make the movies bigger. And start really trying to compete and so “Woodlawn” is one of the most expensive Independent Christian Films since “The Passion of the Christ.” But there is a reason for that. I think the that’s the direction we all need to go. We need to start competing on this generation’s turf and beating them at their own game and I think we can do it. So because the films have gotten so much bigger, the process has actually gotten a bit harder (laughing) than easier. But it’s been much more fulfilling and you know each story has its own challenges and “Woodlawn” has been one of the toughest things I’ve ever done, if not the toughest thing. There’s been a lot of work there, a lot of challenges but boy has it been worth it. 

We just did a week of advanced screenings, we’re doing a simulcast with Lifeway at Prestonwood [Baptist Church in Plano, Texas]. So we let them show the film and I would say that there were hundreds of kids, high school kids, after the film that stood up and walked to the front to make the “Woodlawn” decision - the decision that’s in the movie to commit themselves to Christ and give themselves to loving each other. And that is so fulfilling to be a part of to think that can happen all around our nation, that’s exciting!

DA: That is very exciting. And I think you’re going to continue to get that kind of response as this moves forward because it’s a very anointed and powerful film. Now, to an extent in the making of this film and in the writing of this film you’re dealing with some of the same issues that Aaron Sorkin dealt with Steve Jobs, you’re tackling real life people. Does that make the job harder or in a way easier dealing with true life subject matter and people?

JON: That’s a great question. “Woodlawn” is a true story. And it’s a story that I heard as a child. Sean Astin’s character is based in part on my own father. He was the Chaplain of Woodlawn High School, Hank Erwin. His boss, Wales Goebel was an Evangelist that came in and did the initial meeting and then he left my dad there. So, in many ways this is a family story, it’s the story of the city that I grew up in, and it’s a true story, and that’s what I love about it. That’s why it has so much power because you can’t argue with the truth, this really happened at a Public High School. The answer was Christ, to all of these problems that they were facing of the day. 

So, we really tried to adhere strictly to the truth. Film deviates. You have “based on a true story” and “Inspired by a true story”, “Inspired by actual events” all of these as you drift further and further from what really happened. Certainly in a story like this you have to compress the story together, to get it into a short block of time and you have to do some composite characters. My dad’s character in this film was a version of that where we took two people and merged them into one character. That is done quite a bit. But we really stayed true to the True Story. And it made the film difficult at a certain level because it happens over two football seasons instead of one. And the rival team, the antagonist Shorty White (C. Thomas Howell), his whole team gets saved which from a movie perspective it makes the narrative of the film more difficult but we just felt it was important to say at the end of the day this all really happened. And if it happened once it can happen again and we tried to stay as true to that as possible. 

DA: Now when we last talked you mentioned that you tend to do the writing and plan out the shots with your Director of Photography, Kristopher Kimlin, and then your brother directs the actors for the most part and does the editing. Is that still the case and were there certain visual influences you were drawing from with Kimlin as far as the look and feel of the film?  

JON: Yeah, Andy and I worked for ESPN for a very long time, for 10 years. I actually started working for ESPN as a Cameraman when I was 15. Somebody got sick at a University of Alabama football game. And so, having shot football for a decade, we really wanted to do something special visually for this film. We wanted to try to immerse the audience into football. To give the audience football they hadn’t seen before. So, with Kris Kimlin who works for ESPN a lot too, that was the challenge. Instead of putting the cameras far away from the action and just zooming in which is what most football movies do, certainly the way we see football movies on television, we wanted to use all these cool gadgets to get the camera into the game. And to get the audience right in there. And it’s really, really cool I think the way the sequences play themselves out. Especially once you see the final film with all the sound design and visual effects how cool this looks and it brought with it enormous technical difficulties especially at this budget level but it was so cool to be able to say we want to give the Gospel scale. So, we shot it in a way called Anamorphic which is how a lot of Superhero Movies are shot and so we kind of gave it that treatment. And tried to make it feel larger than life. And it was fun to do that and I’m very proud of Kris [Kimlin] and the crew and everyone involved with how they executed that because it was not easy at all. 

DA: And you mentioned the visual effects that you have, in one sense, it’s kind of like “Titanic” in that a lot of your visual effects, when they’re done properly people aren’t going to notice them. Because it’s adding crowd scenes, digital set extensions and things like that, right? 

JON: Yeah, the visual effects is on of the hardest things in the movie because again, we wanted to put the camera in the game, so you’d see a lot more of the background. Of course the real game took place with 42,000 people and at this budget level you typically never will be able to do that but we had some really innovative Visual Effects people and teams and Christian kids. It’s unbelievable what they could do. 

There was a Christian Film called “Beyond the Mask” that some Homeschool kids, the Burns, did. I was blown away by that film. And in terms of the visual effects of that film, those are the people we brought over so it’s amazing to see so many Christian Homeschool kids working together outshining and outperforming some of the biggest visual effects houses in Los Angeles. The effects in “Woodlawn” are staggering and are absolutely photo real and they’re so photo real you don’t even think about them. We never were able to have large crowds, so many of the people — like “Lord of the Rings” — are digital. Digital people. But it was amazing to see that kind of scale work at this budget level. Some people really performed and delivered. It’s just unbelievable. To see the final film and the final game it’s staggering what they were able to do. 

DA: That’s awesome. Now, there’s a particular scene with Tony Nathan [played by Caleb Castille] and his Dad where they had just lost a game against Banks and his dad tells him, “Nobody is forcing you to play football. You can walk away now and let the world pass you by.” And I feel like somewhere along your film journey that someone gave Jon Erwin that same speech. I wondered who that may be and what period that would have been for you?

JON: You know that’s a great observation and absolutely true. One of the cool things about “Woodlawn” about this story of courage and being called to do something that you don’t know if you’re capable of and then stepping out in faith like Tony did, becoming a symbol of hope and becoming a symbol of hope to Birmingham that really is Andy and my story as filmmakers and it’s also Caleb Castille’s story as the star of the film. I remember having a very established career as a Music Video director and just a hired gun with no responsibility apart from the work itself. I went to work on “Courageous” and I was doing some of the action sequences for them as a Second Unit Director, and very good at that. And the Director Alex Kendrick (“Fireproof”, “Courageous”, “War Room”) asked me, “Jon what’s your purpose and what’s the purpose of your work?” And I couldn’t really answer that question. And it was a part of that process because Tony’s dad says, “You can watch the world pass on by,” but he says, “but this is bigger than football.” 

So, to understand that the thing that I do is that I’m a filmmaker. But the “Why” is so much more important than the what sometimes. And finding your purpose and living out of purpose can be terrifying. But for me to understand that I was gonna leave what was established and gonna leave what’s safe and I’m gonna use my gifts that God has given me for a purpose beyond myself. You know Sports Illustrated in this recent edition actually wrote about “Woodlawn” and it was very good what they wrote about the film. At the very bottom they said, “You know regardless of what you believe the bottom line is that winning is so much sweeter when you play for a purpose higher than yourself.” And finding that purpose for me and finding out, you know what, I’m a Christian who wants to share the Gospel and this is how I do it. By making film. It’s almost a complete shift and an identity shift. And it’s scary. You have to take full responsibility for things. But it’s worth it. And so that was the transition for me and I think it’s a question that everybody needs to ask themselves of what’s my purpose? I know what I do, but why do I do it? Who am I doing it for? 

I feel like October last year of my life God’s really worked on me in saying, I’m gonna stop trying to impress the wrong set of people. The local church is the local world. Hollywood is not the local world. So, I really want to model that out. The cool thing about it you have Andy and I really stretching for something we believe in and and taking great risk to do that. Which is the story of “Woodlawn” which is the story of its star Caleb Castille — being this kid that’s never been in a movie before but prayed over this role, thanked God for this role and at the very last minute God gave it to him because we couldn’t get an actor in from London, you know? And he crushes it. He is so good in front of kids. And so it really is interesting how the movie itself matches this vision and matches our journey, matches Caleb’s journey. It’s all very synergistic. And it’s fascinating and it’s been very very fulfilling. 

DA: Thanks again for you time, Jon.

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S. David Acuff is a filmmaker in Los Angeles. The Christian film he co-wrote “Restoration” shot in North Carolina, is scheduled for a Summer 2018 release.

Follow him on Instagram and Twitter: @DavidAcuff