Bart Millard and JESUS REVOLUTION Directors Talk I CAN ONLY IMAGINE
By Movieguide® Contributor
MercyMe’s Bart Millard and JESUS REVOLUTION directors Andy Erwin and Brent McCorkle are reminiscing about how I CAN ONLY IMAGINE, the hit movie about Millard and his dad, came to be.
“Imagine was just kind of this magical time for all of us because like our fingerprints are each, individually including my brother [Jon Erwin], on that final product,” Erwin said, “and you know Brent, you wrote, you know the script with Jon. You did the music you directed second unit. Your fingers are literally playing the piano for the final scene of the movie.”
Millard said, “From the time the movie came out, I believe it was like eight years from when [producer] Cindy Bond, you know, approached us and said she wanted to make a movie. She was asking what the most popular Christian song was…I was telling her about my dad and stuff, and she was like, you know, in tears going, I want to make this movie, and…[I thought] 100%…no one’s making this movie. During this time, Andy reaches out to me for MOM’S NIGHT OUT.”
Millard was very impressed with MOM’S NIGHT OUT and told Erwin that, and they began a friendship.
“We’re sitting there watching THE AVENGERS, and I remember telling you, I was like, man, where were you not even a year ago?” Millard recalled. “Like, I mean, why couldn’t it have been you? And I told you the whole story…about how I got here or whatever and man [Bond] was going to do it and I figured it wouldn’t happen, but it’s been so long that no…I just wish it would have been y’all or whatever and he goes, ‘Well, we got the script from her like today or yesterday, like we’re going to do it.’”
“I was like what you let me do all of that and [didn’t] stop me and go, ‘Hey, she called us and we grabbed the rights,’” Millard joked.
Erwin’s relationship with McCorkle started after he saw his movie, UNCONDITIONAL.
“I got to the end of the movie, and I look at the credits, and it’s like the same dude wrote, directed, scored this thing,” Erwin said. “Did all the music. Did, you know, a lot of the editing production. Like it was like your name was on there like 50 times, and I went up to the producers afterward. I was like, hey, you know who’s your creative?”
They said, “’Some guy we hired. You know, we really want to talk about our business plan.’ I was like, forget your business plan. I don’t care about that. Who’s your creative? And I reached out to you on Facebook that night,” Erwin told McCorkle, “and just said I don’t want anything from you. I just want to know that you got a fan.”
Erwin’s message was the start of their successful collaboration together.
“I just remember you saying, ‘Hey man, maybe we could work together in the future,’” McCorkle told Erwin, “I just remember my heart really being open to that idea and it’s just crazy 10 years later, you know just what an open heart can do and just what one phone call can do.”
READ MORE: MERCYME’S BART MILLARD SAYS BILLY GRAHAM’S PRAYER FOR SON CHANGED ‘MY LIFE’
“It’s been really cool to see the year that you’ve had with JESUS REVOLUTION…Putting you front and center of the stage has been really cool to see that happen,” Erwin said. “For me, you know, after I did MOM’S NIGHT OUT, like I was so burned out on that project and I was in that low place too.”
Erwin was worn out with trying so hard to make a movie that people would love and make them laugh.
“I just had a hard time trusting anybody to do it and so I was on a bus in Los Angeles and I was like, I need to hire somebody to work with me on the next one that thinks like a storyteller and so I called you and I just like Brent I don’t want to insult you because I know that you’re a great filmmaker but man I need somebody to edit this next film with me that thinks story and would you be willing to take a lesser job editing this thing with me?”
After McCorkle read the script for WOODLAWN, he agreed and became an editor and composer in the movie, which is about a black high school student who joins a white football team.
“I liked the script,” McCorkle said. “I thought it was great. I mean you had a racial reconciliation movie.”
“I think culture in the West is largely forgotten,” he continued. “Like, the core of Christianity, which are love, compassion, empathy, acceptance, belonging, and so to see a really good script come out where Christianity actually changed the construct of racism in the school, you know, and like healed a lot of the racism, I love the script and I signed on for the script. Obviously, I wanted to work with you too, but I just thought, honestly, man, I thought it was a great script.”
After WOODLAWN, they began to work on I CAN ONLY IMAGINE, which won the Movieguide® Epiphany Prize® for Most Inspiring Movie of 2018, a People’s Choice Award for Family Favorite Movie and the Best Feature Film Award at the Real to Reel Film Festival.
The movie’s plot reads:
10-year-old Bart Millard lives with his mother and abusive father Arthur in Texas. One day his mother drops him off at a Christian camp where he meets Shannon. Upon his return from camp, Bart finds his mother has left and movers are removing her belongings. He angrily confronts his father, who denies that his abusiveness was the reason she left. Years later, in high school, Bart and Shannon are dating. Bart plays football to please his father, but is injured, breaking both ankles and ending his career. The only elective with openings is music class, so he reluctantly signs up.
Now, the trio is working on I CAN ONLY IMAGINE 2, to be released next year. Erwin and McCorkle will direct, and McCorkle will write the screenplay. The plotline has not been announced.
Kevin Downes, Erwin, Cindy Bond, Millard, Daryl Lefever and Joshua Walsh are set to produce.
Downes said, “I CAN ONLY IMAGINE captured the hearts of audiences when it was released and continues to provide hope and encouragement to millions around the globe. The success of that film led to the founding of Kingdom Story Company, where our mission is to tell stories that ignite a ‘rush of hope,’ and so we are thrilled that we get to return to this world and explore the rest of Bart’s incredible journey in our company’s first sequel. Co-Directors Andrew Erwin and Brent McCorkle, along with Bart Millard, have crafted an emotionally rich, inspiring, and unexpected take that will appeal to both fans of the original and newcomers alike.”
READ MORE: I CAN ONLY IMAGINE SEQUEL IN THE WORKS — HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW
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