(Video above: Rick and Bubba interview the Woodlawn star and director)
Woodlawn star Caleb Castille and director Andy Erwin joined Rick and Bubba in studio this week to promote the movie’s release and discuss how powerful films can be in spreading the Christian message.
Andy Erwin and his brother John have had back-to-back successful releases with October Baby and Mom’s Night Out, both of which brought in a significant profit for their relatively small budgets.
With their third release, Woodlawn, which was set and filmed in Birmingham, the Erwin Brothers believe they have found a formula that could lead to faith-based films reaching their largest audiences ever.
“Blockbusters” are the key, Andy Erwin explained.
“We found out from our studies from October Baby being an independent release and Mom’s Night Out being a studio release that with the power of output deals, the systems are in place for our films and our message to go around the world,” he said. “But to trigger that you have to be in the top percentage of films, and the only way (to do this is for Christians to unite).
“You’ve had two distinct audiences within the Christian audience,” Erwin continued. “You’ve had ‘Message fans’ who don’t care if it’s entertaining or not, as long as it has a Bible message in the middle of it. Then you’ve have the fans over here who are entertainment fans that water down Christianity just enough, but it needs to be entertaining. As a result, we’ve kept our audiences very small.”
Erwin said the key to creating a Christian blockbuster — as they are trying to do with Woodlawn — is to unite those two audiences.
“The theme of the movie is a bold presentation of the gospel that’s not watered down, but is intrinsically part of the story in a way that is very entertaining,” he explained. “A football movie that is a true story has given us every opportunity to do that. If you can create enough noise within our audience, then that triggers this little thing called ‘fear of missing out’ — FOMO — and that allows the broader audience to say, ‘Hey, what’s going on there with all of those Christians?’ And they show up… You’ve been seeing that in slices… But I think Woodlawn is the next step.”
Burgess agreed.
“Even if you don’t believe what we believe (as Christians),” he said, “it’s a fantastic football movie.”
The film is based on true events surrounding the 1974 Banks vs. Woodlawn football game at Birmingham’s Legion Field. It still holds the record for largest attendance at an Alabama high school football game. The film follows Woodlawn running back Tony Nathan’s recruitment by famed University of Alabama Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant (played by Academy Award winner Jon Voight) during a period when the state was embroiled in racial tensions.
A red carpet premier event for the movie in Hoover attracted roughly 3,000 fans Thursday night. The film hits theaters nationwide on Friday.
Check out the trailer below.
Alabama filmmaker @andrew_erwin on @WoodlawnMovie: We don’t have to water down the Gospel to make a blockbuster http://t.co/m8HlAGmT0w
— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) October 16, 2015
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