What If movie trailer debut!

The movie trailer for the upcoming PureFlix & Jenkins Entertainment movie What If has just debuted! Watch it below and check out more at their Production Blog. Or visit the official movie website.

What If Theatrical Trailer from Pure Flix on Vimeo.

Dallas Jenkins & Stephen Baldwin on FOX News

Great clip here from filmmaker Dallas Jenkins and actor Stephen Baldwin on Hollywood and faith-based films. They talk briefly about The Blind Side and trends in faith-based filmmaking.

Riven movie update

The making of Riven the movie, based on Jerry B. Jenkins dynamic novel, is underway. According the the Jenkins Entertainment website a screenwriter has been chosen:

Jenkins Entertainment has commissioned screenwriter Nathan Scoggins to pen the screenplay for the upcoming feature, Riven. Shooting is scheduled to begin in late 2009 or early 2010, with the intention that this is the second film in the multi-picture deal with Pure Flix Entertainment.

Read our review of Riven.
Read our interview with Jerry B. Jenkins.

Jenkins' Entertainment film What If Update

Jenkins Entertainment has just finished principle photography for its forthcoming film "What If..." starring Kevin Sorbo ("Hercules," Hallmark's "Avenging Angel"), Kristy Swanson ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Big Daddy,") Debby Ryan (Disney's "Suite Life on Deck") and John Ratzenberger ("Cheers," all Pixar films). "What If...", the sixth film from the father/son duo of Jerry and Dallas Jenkins, was filmed in Michigan in July.

In the tradition of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Family Man," "What If..." tells the story of Ben Walker (Sorbo) who 15 years ago left the love of his life, Wendy (Swanson), and ignored his ministry calling in order to pursue a business opportunity. Now, as a high-powered investment banker with a trophy fiancée, he has little or no interest in faith or building a family. But suddenly, on the day he is named partner in his firm, Ben is visited by a mysterious (divine, perhaps?) tow truck driver (Ratzenberger) who knocks Ben into an alternative reality--the life he should have had. Ben awakens on a Sunday with his wife Wendy and two daughters getting ready for church, where Ben is scheduled to give his first sermon as the new pastor. If Ben wants to escape this "What If..." scenario, he must first learn the value of faith and family. The screenplay was written by Cary Solomon & Chuck Konzelman and Andrea Nasfell.

"What If..." is the first film in a two-picture partnership between Jenkins Entertainment and Pure Flix Entertainment. Jenkins Entertainment is owned by New York Times bestselling author Jerry B. Jenkins and operated by his son Dallas Jenkins. As with the majority of their projects, Jerry will serve as executive producer and Dallas will direct both films. Pure Flix Entertainment will produce and supervise marketing and distribution for the films.

"Our partnership with Pure Flix is perfect for us because they're experts at everything we're not," said Dallas Jenkins. "Working with them so far has been fantastic and has allowed us to concentrate on our interests and strengths."

"The Pure Flix partnership with Jenkins has been a wonderful experience due to their strong creative ideas and Dallas's directing, which has allowed 'What If...' to become a truly inspiring film," said Michael Scott, Pure Flix managing partner. "We can't wait for the next one, 'Riven,' as well."

Dallas added, "I've never been this optimistic after shooting a film."

Jenkins Entertainment and Pure Flix have created a website for the film, http://whatifmovie.wordpress.com, which includes a "director's diary" video blog from each day of shooting, interviews with the cast and crew, behind-the-scenes photos and updates on the film's progress.

For more information about Jenkins Entertainment, visit www.jenkins-entertainment.com. For information on Pure Flix Entertainment, see www.pureflixentertainment.com.

What If Movie Director's Commentary from Dallas Jenkins

Filmmaker/Director Dallas Jenkins (Jenkins Entertainment) has shot a 13 Day Behind The Scenes Video Diary about the making of his upcoming movie What If. If you've ever wanted to know what goes into making a movie, here's where you can start. Below is the "diary" from Day 1. Be sure to visit the official What If Production Blog to watch all of them.

Jenkins Entertainment to make Riven movie

According to Dallas Jenkins, Jerry's son and the co-founder with him of Jenkins Entertainment, Jerry's novel Riven is to be a movie.

Says Dallas at his blog:

"We've also decided that Riven, the book my Dad wrote that came out last year (and for my money, is his best book), is going to be the second film in the Jenkins/Pureflix partnership. We will be talking to screenwriters in the next couple of weeks and hope to be in production by the end of the year. I'm actually going to send a letter to Joe Eszterhas, the famous screenwriter of Basic Instinct, Flashdance, Music Box, and Jagged Edge, among others, who recently became a Christian. I know it's a long shot, but I think he'd be interested in some of the films we're doing. His books are incredible (any aspiring filmmaker should read The Devil's Guide to Hollywood), including his recent one, Crossbearer, which is about his conversion. Maybe Riven will strike a chord, or perhaps Youngest Hero, which is about baseball, one of his great loves. We'll see."

Read the rest of the blog here.

Read our review of Riven.
Read our interview with Jerry B. Jenkins.
Read our interview with Dallas Jenkins.

Dallas Jenkins article "Does Hollywood Love Christians Anymore?"

Filmmaker Dallas Jenkins (Midnight Clear, Hometown Legend) has a new article up at the website Big Hollywood entitled "Does Hollywood Love Christians Anymore?"

Says Dallas about the site:

If you have any interest in Hollywood, media, and pop culture from an inside perspective, and if you lean to the right, check out the new website from Andrew Breitbart, http://bighollywood.breitbart.com. Andrew ran the Drudge Report for a few years and is a writer/commentator who's guest hosted for Dennis Miller, Michael Savage, Lars Larson, etc. and is always a guest on various news and talk shows. The site is a collection of conservative Hollywood and media types writing about the business and pop culture from a conservative perspective. He invited me to write articles for the site, and my first article (Does Hollywood Love Christians Now?) was part of the site's launch. Check out the site, I think you'll enjoy it.

His piece begins thus:

After my first feature film Hometown Legend had been sold to Warner Brothers, I had some meetings with the WB marketing team in 2001. Near the end of their presentation, I said, “Now you know that this film has some faith elements in it, and my Dad (the executive producer) wrote the Left Behind books, so we could take advantage of his fan base and also promote the film to churches and youth groups.” After an awkward pause where I assume they were expecting me to explain myself, they had two questions: “What are the Left Behind books, and what are youth groups?”

Read the full article.

Read our interview with Dallas.

Jenkins Entertainment and Pure Flix deal

Jenkins Entertainment and Pure Flix are soon to announce a deal in which the two will produce a few films together. No word yet on the type of movies, but co-founder/Director/Producer Dallas Jenkins had this to say at his blog:

"Pureflix introduced me to a writing duo that is fantastic, two guys who had the exact same urge I had to go in this direction. Our primary objective is to make higher quality films than what the Christian market has provided thus far, and these guys can help us get there. If the films get better, hopefully the markeco-foundet will grow and mature, and we can really start to compete with what's out there in the mainstream."

Read our interview with Dallas Jenkins.

Jenkins Entertainment update

Excerpts from Dallas Jenkins' most recent newsletter update:

--Our website has a new look, and I think you'll enjoy it. Nothing drastic, but it's easier to navigate, has a sharper look and feel, and we've got more clips and videos than we have before. Check out a sample scene from Cliche, the Jars of Clay music video from Hometown Legend, and some new pictures on most of the project pages.

--As I've mentioned, I'm doing a weekly blog during the development of "Mountain." If and when we go into pre-production, it'll be more frequent, and during shooting, it will be daily and will include video updates.

--Regarding Mountain, we are still trying to complete the financing. It looked like everything was put together a few months ago, but that ended up not being very viable, which was a frustration, of course. Our company is still committed and passionate, and we've put some money where our mouth is, so we're in some active discussions with a few potential partners. In the meantime, we've decided to start making offers to lead cast to build some momentum; I'll let you know if anything exciting happens there. Stay tuned to the blog as well.

--The Karen Kingsbury book, "Moment of Weakness," that we've been developing for over a year with Larry Levinson Productions (Hallmark Channel), really seems to have gotten some momentum going. The final draft of the script just finished, so we should know in the next month or so if that's going to happen.

Find out more at the Jenkins Entertainment website.

Read our interview with Dallas Jenkins here.

Midnight Clear movie trailer

From Jenkins Entertainment, here's the final trailer for Midnight Clear the movie, releasing to DVD December 4th. Read our review of the novel Midnight Clear by Dallas & Jerry Jenkins here.

Midnight Clear movie releasing on DVD December 4th

New from Jenkins Entertainment (Hometown Legend) is the movie Midnight Clear starring Stephen Baldwin. Coming to DVD on December 4th, this film was based on a short story by Jerry Jenkins (of Left Behind fame) and directed by his son Dallas Jenkins.

Dallas talked recently about some other new releases coming soon from Jenkins Entertainment:

We continue to develop "Mountain," based on the book, "The Man Who Moved a Mountain." This is our passion project and one that we desperately want to make by next summer.

We are also developing a movie based on Karen Kingsbury's book, "Moment of Weakness," for the Hallmark Channel. We had a great experience with Hallmark on our film, "Though None Go With Me" (also available on DVD).

Read our review of Midnight Clear the novel here.
Read our interview with Dallas Jenkins here.

Watch the preview for Midnight Clear: