“Forty-Seven Days With Jesus” premiered at more than 950 theatres nationwide and is now available for home entertainment on DVD and digital.
The faith-based film is about a modern-day Christian family, the Burdons, who struggle with general disconnectedness, such as cell phone addiction and workaholism.
“My understanding is that on a totality scale, the release went great,” co-writer David Gutel told The Epoch Times. “We started off being in 600 theatres and it just kept growing and growing and growing and growing.”
Mr. Gutel co-directed the film with Emilio Palame, who composed and arranged the music.
In the film, a young father named Joseph Burdon struggles with work-life balance as the family patriarch, Poppa, nears the end of his life.
“I didn’t want to make a movie that affirms people’s faith because I don’t think that is what movies should do when it comes to religion,” Mr. Gutel said. “I’m trying to remind people why it matters today and to do that we needed a modern story.”
“Forty-Seven Days With Jesus” is loosely based on Mr. Palame’s past lifestyle as a musician trying to provide for his wife and children.
Joseph’s wife, Juliana Burdon, is frustrated with how little time her husband spends with the family.
“My workaholic nature is pretty much the inspiration,” Mr. Palame told The Epoch Times. “David and I just based the screenplay on events in our lives.”
“Forty-Seven Days With Jesus” is one of a slew of faith-based films and TV shows by various directors and production companies in recent years.
Others include “His Only Son,” “Journey to Bethlehem,” “The Chosen,” “Birthright: Outlaw,” “Legacy Peak,” and “Testament: The Story of Moses.”
But Mr. Palamse said “Forty-Seven Days With Jesus” is different.
“It exists in two time periods, which is one of the main aspects of what makes it different,” Mr. Palame said. “The story goes back and forth between first century Jerusalem and present day. We didn’t want to just make another movie about Jesus’ life. We wanted to make it about how it affects people today.”
Mr. Gutel attributes the rising number of faith-based films like “Forty-Seven Days With Jesus” to American audiences seeking cleaner content.
“General audiences are, first off, evolving to expect better production value and better stories out of the things they watch because visual media is so commoditized right now,” Mr. Gutel said.
The production was completed partly in Gato, California adjacent to Santa Barbara in 35 days despite last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike.
Biblical scenes were filmed in Temecula, California, and at the film production company Capernaum Studios in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, where a few seasons of “The Chosen” were filmed.
“We were able to keep filming during the strikes because our production was granted a SAG waiver out of hundreds of thousands of people applying,” Mr. Gutel added. “Our producer Kristen Brancaccio went to the National Religious Broadcast (NRB) convention and the actors we had cast is what sealed the deal with Pinnacle Peak Pictures.”
The next NRB Convention is February 24-27, 2025 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Pinnacle Peak Pictures is an American evangelical Christian film production company and distribution studio that has produced Christian films such as “God’s Not Dead,” “Do You Believe?” “Woodlawn,” “The Case for Christ,” and “Unplanned.”
“There are so many movies that have been made over the last couple of decades that are just so depressing, so violent, and negative that people are starving for faith-based content and stories that inspire us to be better people,” Mr. Palame said.
The film stars “The Chosen” actors Yoshi Barrigas as Joseph Burdon and Catherine Lidstone as his wife, and Cameron Arnett and Joshua Triplett.
Mr. Palame, who is an actor as well as a director, plays Poppa.
“I really loved working with all of them,” he said. “Yoshi was great at staying very present in how he wanted Joseph’s character to come across and as an actor director, I had their respect because they had seen my work in the other movies.”
Although he is a devout Christian, Mr. Palame doesn’t limit himself to faith-based films.
In 2014, he was cast in “Expelled” as Principal Truman.
“The atmosphere on set is one of the things that’s different but I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of really good people who are wanting viewers to laugh or to inspire people. So, I feel I have haven’t done a disservice by being cast in the secular films I’ve been in,” Mr. Palame added.
