Where things stand regarding the “Witnesses” film project

Some of you are aware that we have launched an effort under the auspices of the Interpreter Foundation to produce an array of films, online recourses, and other related materials regarding the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.

I’m pleased to report that, thus far, things are proceeding quite nicely.  We’ve raised approximately half of the funds needed for filming and editing, and we have pledges of further donations.  A number of important interviews have already been recorded.  We have a script in hand, and we’re now moving toward casting and toward “distant filming” on location, to be undertaken in two or three months.

Weirdly, an anonymous online commenter who has been lying about me for several years explains to anybody gullible (and malignant) enough to believe him that this film project is merely a money-making scheme on my part, and that I have no intention, and never have had any intention, of actually producing a film.

He’ll be definitively proven wrong, of course.  Probably sometime in the latter half of 2020.  But I hereby predict that the completion of the project will have absolutely no impact on him, that he won’t apologize or issue a retraction or change his behavior.

However, I think it important, from time to time, to make certain things very clear.  And now is as good a time as any.

As far as profiting from the film goes, nothing in our financial plan involves paying me a single dime.  I won’t profit from this project.  I won’t receive a single cent.  Nothing.

For that matter, while the by-laws of the Interpreter Foundation permit me and a few other senior Foundation leaders to be paid a maximum of $500 per year for our labors on its behalf, none of us has ever drawn a single nickel.  In fact, my wife and I are donors to the Foundation, and have been during every year of its existence.

Barring some unforeseen disaster, the Witnesses film project will be completed.  The people with whom I’m working are experienced filmmakers, and they know how to bring movie efforts to completion.  We’re committed to this endeavor.

We thank everybody who has contributed toward seeing it through.  I believe that this project is needed.  Without generous donations, though, we would be unable to finish what we’ve started.  But it will be finished.  And we hope and believe that it will do a great deal of good.