DeVon Franklin to Produce Movie About ‘Reckless Love’ Worship Song

DeVon Franklin to Produce Movie About ‘Reckless Love’ Worship Song

By Movieguide® Staff

Famous Christian artist Cory Asbury recently announced a partnership with Paramount Pictures to turn his hit worship song “Reckless Love” into a feature-length movie.

Movieguide® Award-winning producer DeVon Franklin will join Asbury to produce the movie via his Franklin Entertainment label, which has a first-look deal at Paramount.

The team also features writer J. Mills Goodloe, who wrote the Netflix hit P.S. I STILL LOVE YOU.

Just like the Grammy award-winning song, the movie will follow Asbury’s relationship with his family, the tensions with his father, and how that father-son relationship wrongly shaped Asbury’s view of God.

The idea for a movie based on the hit has been in the works for a while.

“When DeVon called me in the summer of 2018 to discuss the possibility of making a Reckless Love movie, I had every intention of telling him, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” Asbury told fans on Facebook. “If you know me, you know how highly I value authenticity & realness, so taking advantage of the success of a song God had freely given me felt a bit exploitative.”

Asbury said that he did not want to take advantage of the song’s success and was also mindful of the effect it may have on his father.

“I wanted to protect & preserve its purity at all costs, which in my mind, meant NOT ‘selling out’ to cool opportunities that came my way,” Asbury said. “I was also mindful of the fragility of my relationship with my dad (upon which parts of the initial story were predicated) & I didn’t want to expose him (or myself) in an untimely manner.”

However, Asbury said that Franklin changed his perspective on the opportunity.

“As my conversation with Devon went on, he said a phrase that really struck my heart & caused me to see beyond myself… ‘Cory, what if this film is bigger than you & your story? What if it brings healing to your dad & dads all across the world?’ I flew to North Carolina the next day to ask my dad’s permission & we wept together. It was the first step toward healing our relationship. Needless to say, I was listening to what God might want to do through the whole thing,” Asbury said.

The song was released in 2018 and spent 68 weeks on the Hot Christians Songs chart, 18 weeks at No. 1, and 55 weeks in the top 10. The single, which has over 300 million total streams, was also nominated for a 2019 Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.

Franklin previously produced several faith-based movies such as the inspirational drama BREAKTHROUGH starring Chrissy Metz, the animated holiday film THE STAR, and MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN.