By Gavin Boyle
Garrett Backstrom, the executive producer for the upcoming movie HOME, explained the explosion of the faith-based market and why it is so important that high-quality Christian shows and movies are reaching millions.
“Is the faith driven market in Hollywood exploding right now? I think so,” he said in a recent Instagram video. “What we’ve seen over the past five years is just an absolute explosion of higher level, quality content that is faith driven.”
Right now, he’s working on HOME, which is inspired by Christian hero George Müller. The movie will follow “Johnny J (Mike 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.”
“We are planting seeds that can really be watered by the Lord to be turned into well watered, fruitful trees of life that bear righteous fruit,” Backstrom continued. “And there’s a lot of other filmmakers just like me that are contending within a very evil and very dark industry because we understand the importance of contending within this pillar of influence.”
These projects have set the foundation for millions of people’s faith as they familiarize audiences with Christian stories and point them to the source: the Bible. THE CHOSEN, for example, runs a companion Bible study which explores a theme throughout scripture that is relevant to the respective season.
“We look at the scripts, and we choose the themes and we move from there,” Amanda Jenkins, who runs THE CHOSEN Bible study, told Movieguide® of how she creates the study, titled “The Stronghold of the Chosen.”
“We don’t want people to ultimately land on the show,” Jenkins added. “We want them to land in scripture.”
This push into high-quality Christian content has largely come from a recognition by millions of Americans that life without the Lord is empty. Gen Z, in particular, is extremely interested in faith and leads the charge to return back to God. Hollywood has responded with these faith-based projects that have found great success.
“I think Christianity and values are just making their comeback [in Hollywood],” explained director Jon Erwin. “There’s a lot of executives in the entertainment industry that are just titans…that for a long they they were content…sort of keeping at day some of the more damaging trends in the industry, but I think there’s been a shift in content in the industry where it’s like, enough is enough. I have to align my values with my career.”
To serve this audience, Erwin created Wonder Project and has enjoyed success through HOUSE OF DAVID, which streams on Prime Video. The show, which explores the life of King David, has been the No. 1 streaming title on the platform and also helped launch Wonder Project’s own streaming service.
As audiences continue to crave and pursue Christian content, it is amazing to see the entertainment industry respond and deliver projects rooted in the Bible.
Read Next: Why Wonder Project Is Collabing With Your Favorite Christian Influencers
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