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By Mallory Mattingly
THE CASE FOR CHRIST star Mike Vogel will lead filmmaker Sean McNamara’s new movie, HOME, as Johnny Jones.
The movie follows “Johnny J (Vogel), a charming con man sentenced to community service. His path changes when he bonds with an immigrant child named Gustavo, and Johnny soon must risk everything to help protect the youngster and create a home for him,” a synopsis reads.
Alexa PenaVega (SPY KIDS), Dennis Haysbert (24) and Devon Franklin (JESUS REVOLUTION) round out the cast.
“I have a big heart for children,” PenaVega said of her passion for the project and her role as Maria, a widow helping children in need. “We’re at a time where trafficking is just…I feel like at an all-time high, and people are becoming so much more aware of it. So, the timing of this film is hopefully really important and really, really impactful for people.”
“HOME is a story about redemption, belonging and the unexpected ways we find purpose through other people,” McNamara, who directed Movieguide® Award winner SOUL SURFER, said of the movie. “At its core, it’s about protecting those who need it most and redefining what family really means.”
The life of 19th-century Christian orphan advocate George Müller partly inspired HOME.
Related: Stacked Cast Brings Redemptive Story to Big Screen. Here’s What We Know.
According to Desiring God, “Müller built five large orphan houses and cared for 10,024 orphans in his lifetime. When he started in 1834, there were accommodations for 3,600 orphans in all of England, and twice that many children under 8 were in prison. One of the great effects of Müller’s ministry was to inspire others so that, according to biographer A.T. Pierson, ‘fifty years after Mr. Müller began his work, at least one hundred thousand orphans were cared for in England alone.'”
Five years ago, HOME producer Garrett Backstrom’s father encouraged him to look into Müller’s story.
However, it’s hard to do a biopic set in the 1800s.
“It’s expensive. They’re tough to pull off. It can be difficult because it lacks a lot of that cultural relevancy that’s needed,” Backstrom said in an Instagram video. “So, I like the idea of saying, what would it look like if we did a picture with a modern day type of George Müller?”
“And then it kind of evolved, and then we had this book that we loved, and some of these characters, and then we had George Müller’s life, and then we had some original kind of vision and story plots and things that we kind of wanted to incorporate, and that’s when this thing kind of got pieced together, and Howard Klausner really birthed this original screenplay,” he explained.
With a star-studded cast and a narrative inspired by Müller’s profound legacy, HOME promises to deliver a compelling, modern-day story of redemption, family and safeguarding the vulnerable.
Read Next: Why Alexa PenaVega’s Next Movie Role Feels Personal
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