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\u201cRedeeming Love\u201d is a frontier day imagining of the romantic pursuit of damaged prostitute Sarah\/Angel (Abigail Cowen) by the honorable Michael Hosea (Tom Lewis) in the small town of Pair-a-Dice, California. \u00a0Although the subject matter is darker than a typical faith-based film, the story is meant to illustrate a just God redeeming his children through His love.<\/p>\n
In this exclusive interview, author Francine Rivers discusses why the time was right for the big screen, how the creators delicately approached the subject matter, and how readers can share the story with their friends.<\/p>\n
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I\u2019m sure making a movie of the story has been attempted or planned before now. Why was now the right time for this film? <\/strong><\/p>\n We dealt with a number of different companies, and they never really got the script right because they didn\u2019t understand the cycle. When I started working with Cindy Bonds, with Mission Pictures, I thought I wanted to just try to tackle and write the script so that they\u2019d had an idea of what I was looking for, not really expecting that they would use it. When D.J. Caruso came on board, I was able to work with him. If I wrote the script as a linear script, just like I did the book and on screen, that would be just too hard for people, to see the beginning story of where Angel came from, and how she ended up in prostitution. So, he really restructured the script. And then we worked together to strengthen scenes and make sure that all the way through Christ is at the very center. Because that\u2019s been the whole hope for this project with all the main people that are involved in it, that we want to glorify God and we want to get the message out that God loves you. There is a God and He loves you. We constantly are turning away to other things, but He pursues us and takes us back over and over again. Eventually, you have to make that choice. You have to decide<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n When did they pull the trigger and finish the filming? Did you avoid the shutdown? <\/strong><\/p>\n They were filming in South Africa, before COVID. And, actually, this is a miraculous thing. They finished filming everything and had it \u201cin the can\u201d 24 hours ahead of the worldwide shutdown from COVID. So, they had all the film done. Then they had that year in a private studio to work on the editing and to put in the music and add in the special effects and all the different things that go on in moviemaking. So, the film has been ready for a while, but we\u2019ve just been waiting for the theaters to open up.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s an unconventional faith film. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s gonna lend itself to more controversy than what Christian filmmaking has looked like for the past ten years. What kind of responses did you have when the book was released? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh, there was pushback when the book came out. It was banned by one of the major denominations. But the thing is that you know, God\u2019s love is passionate. The Bible is from the beginning to the end, it\u2019s a romance about God\u2019s love for each of us and for His people. I could pull back and soften it all, but it would be the same thing. I mean, there are a lot of things in the Bible that if you saw them on the screen, they\u2019d be X rated, not R rated. And this movie is PG-13. We were very, very careful. And wanted to make sure that everything was honoring to him and wasn\u2019t going to cause too many ripples, but there will be some.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Was there anything that changed during the process when you watched it? Was there anything where you said, \u201cLet\u2019s pull that back\u201d? <\/strong><\/p>\n I was watching the early, early cuts of it, and I was able to say, \u201cI think we could pull back a little bit on this, we can pull back a little on that,\u201d because we did want to absolutely keep it PG-13. And surprisingly, there were aspects of it that I would expect that would be, for the ratings, \u201cThis is going to be an R rated thing,\u201d \u00a0actually were not the things that I think would have bothered Christians. But there are two love scenes, and they\u2019re pretty steamy. But the whole point is God created sex. And it\u2019s supposed to be the people within the bounds of marriage. And Michael waits a long time before marriage because he wants to know that she loves him. That\u2019s the point. It\u2019s to show the passion of God, but also, let\u2019s keep it in the right place.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The cast did a great job. Do you want to talk about what they brought to the characters? <\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, I was involved in having some choice into who played what part, and I\u2019ll tell you when we saw Abigail Cowen, we knew immediately. I mean, she looks like a beautiful girl. And she\u2019s an extremely talented actress. So that was still what we just knew right away. Michael was harder to cast. We really looked at a lot of different very talented actors, but you want somebody that can really do all the nuances of emotion that he had to go through, and who could pull off purity. A man who\u2019s pure and waiting. And Tom Lewis is a British actor, classically trained, super talented. D.J. is the one that spotted him and said, \u201cThis is our Michael,\u201d and he certainly is. And then, you know, we were fortunate to get people like Logan Marshall-Green and Famke Janssen and Eric Dane and Nina Dobrev. They\u2019re all wonderful actors.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What was it being on set and being in that world that you helped create? <\/strong><\/p>\n It was pretty amazing. Rick and I went to South Africa, and we were actually on set for about three weeks and were able to watch. And the first day we were there, we were taken out to where they had built the down at Pair-a-Dice. And it just blew me away. Because in my mind, it was fantastic. You know, I sort of pent tense structures and rough buildings and all that. It was built by Johnny Breedt. Tremendous set designs for inside and outside and they even stocked some of the shelves and in the general store, they there was a basket of real fish. So you could smell the fish on the front. Just to give that ambiance. They built a chapel. And I believe they\u2019re leaving the chapel and the and the town of Pair-a-Dice there. So we may see them in future films and other films.<\/p>\n I love the Old West. There\u2019s just some draw to it. And that\u2019s why I wanted to place you know, it\u2019s based on the book of Hosea from the Bible, but I wanted to put it in the Gold Rush period. I was writing in the general market for a number of years, steamy historical romances. They were all in California. So I wanted to reach the people that have been following my career up to that time and say, \u201cHey, I\u2019ve been writing about love, but that\u2019s not the real thing. This is what the real thing looks like.\u201d Christ loves them.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If the average churchgoer, were talking to you about the film, and let\u2019s say they watched the trailer and they\u2019re hesitant to go or they don\u2019t know if they want to see it, what would you say to them?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would ask them to read the book first because you know, you can see the movie is a book, there\u2019s something about seeing things visually that can actually have more power. But I think in a book, you get all the inner dialogue, you see the spiritual battle going on, and you understand the characters and why the scenes are there. So, for people that are hesitant, I would say read the book first. Then see the movie and you\u2019ll understand, you know, what\u2019s happening with the characters and why they\u2019re behaving as they are. People that are going to be bothered by certain things, I think we have to be sensitive to that and understand and just encourage them to take a look at the book and discuss it and talk about it. And if it\u2019s not something that you feel you could ever watch on screen, then that\u2019s a personal choice you have to make.<\/p>\n \u201cRedeeming Love\u201d releases in theaters today. For more information, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n