How Gary Sinise Inspired Andy Erwin’s Next Movie: ‘The Purest Picture of Redemption’
By Movieguide® Contributor
The Erwin Brothers’ Kingdom Story Company has acquired the rights to produce Fearless, by Eric Blehm, the true story of Navy SEAL Adam Brown.
“The book by @ericblehmofficial shattered me. Those of you who’ve read it know exactly what I mean. Adam Brown was a great American and the purest picture of redemption I’ve experienced. It’s beyond important to us to do Adam, his family, and his SEAL brothers justice in this film. Honored to get back to work! #Fearless,” Andrew Erwin wrote in a July 13 Instagram post.
Several of the Erwin Brothers’ movies have won Movieguide® awards in the past. I STILL BELIEVE won the 2021 Epiphany Prize for Inspiring Movies, and I CAN ONLY IMAGINE took home the 2019 Epiphany Prize for Inspiring Movies.
For this newest endeavor, Erwin explains that he had been “chasing” this story for four years since his friend Gary Sinise shared it with him.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie will adapt Blehm’s 2012 book on SEAL Team 6 commando Adam Brown, a Navy soldier who overcame drug addiction and jail time to become a member of the elite SEAL team known for killing Osama bin Laden.
Andrew Erwin will direct, and he, alongside Kevin Downes, Mark Ciardi and Jon Erwin, will produce.
Jason Hall, who wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for AMERICAN SNIPER, will tackle the screenplay for FEARLESS.
“We are tremendously honored to bring this story to life, and I can’t think of a better person to write this than Jason Hall. We are all honored by the trust the Brown family has placed in us to tell this story,” Erwin said.
Downes added, “This film is right in Andy’s wheelhouse. Fearless will not only take you behind enemy lines with Seal Team 6, but into the heart and soul of one man and how he found the strength to step up.”
While Brown died in battle in 2010, his legacy lives on in his hometown of Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Erwin recently visited Hot Springs, touring the town with Brown’s wife, Kelley.
“Driving around Hot Springs with Kelley Brown seeing where Fearless played out was an honor. This statue of Adam stands in the same neighborhood he used to use in. Ultimate redemption story. True hero,” Erwin wrote in an Instagram caption.
Kelley Brown shared, “We are so blessed that such an amazing team will bring Adam’s story—as told in Fearless—to the big screen. His legacy is in good hands.”
Movieguide® previously reported on the Erwin Brothers’ focus on telling true stories:
Since breaking into Hollywood with their faith-based movies, the Erwin brothers have stuck to the true stories that depict people’s powerful transformation through faith in God.
“We’ve done, for whatever reason, nothing but adaptations of true stories. I just think that there’s such power in the truth,” Erwin said. “You just can’t argue with the transformation in someone’s life that Christianity brings, that the gospel brings.”
Erwin added: “When it’s true, it’s just all that more powerful. And I love it when someone watches the movies and says, ‘if that can happen to that person, maybe it can happen to me.’ In this case, if they can achieve their dreams, maybe I can too. And so we just we love inspirational, true stories.”
Despite the pandemic, Erwin said he is grateful for the chance to continue to make movies that will inspire and uplift audiences.
“There has never been a more powerful medium to reach more and more people globally,” Erwin said. “Jesus told stories, and it’s amazing the global reach of the stories that we can tell because of technology. So we should seize the moment and get in the game in Hollywood. And I’m excited to be a part of that. Just getting Christianity back in the entertainment business.”