FIREPROOF MEDIA TIP SHEET ONE GREAT MOVIE, NINE GOOD STORY ANGLES
1. Not your typical indy film. The fact that thousands of new indy films each year rarely see the light of a commercial theater made Sherwood’s hit with “Facing the Giants” even more remarkable: a $100,000 film made by a church with an allvolunteer cast, picked up by Sony Pictures, earning $10 million in box office sales. Side note: Albany GA, The Volunteer City. Sherwood prays that its movies will bless every person involved. In this case, those prayers are also for an entire city—in particular the city’s fire department and hospital. Fire fighters served as consultants, as firefighters playing themselves, and with their best new fire engines. Likewise the Phoebe Putney Hospital donated facilities for filming and for a production office. Shellman GA donated its RR tracks and crossing for the nail-biter “car stuck/train coming” scene. 2. Not your typical love story. “Fireproof” stands out first because it shows the limits of human love. Second, the love story is between a husband and wife, showing what can go wrong in marriage and what can go very right. Third it’s about not what a lover gets but learns to give. And finally, this love story spins off a “Love Dare” book applicable to married couples everywhere. Not your typical church outreach. Feature-length film entertainment from a church? Two years ago that novelty put “Facing the Giants” on every major mainstream and Christian television news network, The Washington Post, LA Times, Variety . . . and much more. Under Senior Pastor Michael Catt, “Fireproof” continues to prove that a church aiming its talents at God’s glory has no limits. In Sherwood’s case, the audacious congregational motto to “reach the world from Albany GA” is coming true. For lead actor Kirk Cameron, not your typical acting gig. To earn the part, Kirk auditioned the movie’s nine most intense scenes. He auditioned in part because this movie is a departure from his usual acting role. Before shooting began, he hit the gym and gained 15 pounds of muscle. Lead actress Erin Bethea is in her first major film role. The entertainer now based in Orlando took off from work and came back to her home church. “When I told everyone at work why I was taking off, they couldn’t believe it,” Erin says of her windfall role. Her career in acting is the product of church that knows the power of entertainment. The “Fireproof” storyline is not based on demographics or marketing research. The story reflects writer Alex Kendrick’s response to the idea he believes God gave him. Then Alex developed the story with co-writer (and brother) Stephen Kendrick.
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Fireproof Tip Sheet Page two The storyline draws from firefighters across the U.S. The firefighter’s credo to “never leave your partner behind” is the right picture of the heat that marriages hope to withstand. The movie’s homage to firefighters and depictions of their challenges and team spirit draw enthusiastic support from individual firefighters—and from entire groups such as Firefighters for Christ, led by John White, former head of Search and Rescue for the Los Angeles Fire Department. An unprecedented union of national marriage ministries. Focus on the Family, FamilyLife, Chick-Fil-A, Marriage Co-Mission, American Family Association, and MarriageToday head a growing list of marriage and pro-family organizations lining up to support this movie’s powerful story. That’s a story in itself. Acting on faith. On the Sherwood plan, short-term actors become lifetime ambassadors of a movie’s message. So cast and crew fill their roles as a mission. The movie travels further than they will, they’ll say, and far outlast their lifetimes. That’s why, says Director/Writer Alex Kendrick, if it came down to a casting decision between acting talent and personal faith, the actor’s faith would tip the scales.
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