Come, I will hide nothing from you: my basic criterion for a decent film is whether or not an exploding starship is in it at any point (although a sufficient number of explosions, preferably involving techno music, will make up for it). So the movie Fireproof neither pinged on my radar, nor am I particularly planning to see it when it comes out on DVD tomorrow.

But I have noticed that it’s being ordered through links to Moe Lane, and that made me curious enough to look it up. That led me to Big Hollywood’s article about how the directors have been quietly making successful Christian-friendly independent films for the last few years was very interesting: so was the fact that it managed to score positive reviews from The New York Times and Variety on Rotten Tomatoes. Fireproof has apparently grossed 33.4 million on a 500K budget; I understand that a certain contingent of my readership may roll their eyes at this particular part of the counterculture, but that’s one heck of an ROI. There are indy filmmakers who would hyperventilate at the thought of making half that.

The movie website is here: the movie studio’s (Sherwood Pictures) is here; and the church’s (Sherwood Baptist) is here. I mention all three because you’re going to get the most information from the first and last link; the church uses the movie studio as a tool, and while they’re happy to talk about the things they produce and who they are, they’re not really hung up on the entire movie-making process itself. Which in itself is kind of interesting.

Moe Lane

Crossposted at Moe Lane under the name “Fireproof?”