The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with Andy Erwin

0:00 Andy Irwin, it's great to have you back here. And we're talking about the best Christmas pageant ever, which was one of my favorite stories growing up. And I know it was the director, Dallas Jenkins, one of his favorite stories as well. And that is quite a journey that he went on to get the rights for that film. But let's just talk about this film and how you guys got involved with this as well. And you really have some sort of a powerhouse team that put this together. So it's great to have you back to talk about this. John, great to be with you, man. I always love having conversations about stories with you. And I think this one with best Christmas pageant ever was a dream. I think it was kind of a little bit of that Avengers assemble kind of moment where it's like Dallas is just one of the heroes of our space.

0:48 And we all started at the same time. And so when he came to us with this passion project of this book that he's been reading to his kids for 20 years, that's been a beloved classic for 50, and he just finally got the rights. And he's like, hey, I have to get this made. And he kind of presented his vision. The idea of joining forces on this one was thrilling for us. And so he's a master storyteller, and I love collaborating with him on it. So I want to hear you tell kind of how Dallas got the the rights to this, because that is a powerful story. And he was praying for the pageant on a regular basis, too. So but before we get into that, tell me about your experience with this this beloved story personally.

1:35 You know, it's one that, you know, I've I've, you know, have a history with just, you know, remembering, you know, my mom read it to us at some point. And I just remember, you know, that sitting on the bookshelf and remember, like just being intrigued by it. And then there was always the classic made for TV movie back in 1983, which I was, I think at the time, like five years old. And so, you know, a lot of a lot of people have had that journey, but I never saw the story the way that Dallas did in his end. And it was one that, you know, his wife got, you know, a copy of the book. I think she was at Pottery Barn and passed it on the checkout line and on a whim kind of impulse purchase by she bought it. She brought it home and like, let's read this for Christmas.

2:16 And they joked that Dallas couldn't get to the end of the story without breaking down and crying. And he just absolutely loved it. And so he was like, I have to make this story. And so he tried to figure out who had the rights. And he was a no name filmmaker back then and was trying to and nobody give him the time of day. And so the student had the rights. He just kept chasing after it and praying over it every day. It was in his prayer journal. He pray over it. And finally, about 15 years in, you know, he he just kind of was disheartened. He was like, I'm going to just take it off my prayer list. And he goes to exit out. And when he did, you know, God was like, no, it's not done yet. And he said he broke down crying, called his wife.

2:56 And she's like, are you calling me because, you know, you got to put it on your heart to pray for Padgett today. And he said, yeah, she's like, me too. And he just like, it's not over. He went back to the rights holders and they had come back around and he said, at this point, he was doing Chosen. And the mother of one of the rights holders said, my mom called me and said, there is this filmmaker that does this show on the Bible called The Chosen. And you have to have him do Christmas pageant. And he's like, so it's available if you want it. And so Dallas got the rights, brought it to us and said, this is something I have to make and pitched us his vision for it. And his vision was just very nostalgic.

3:37 It was like kind of a classic Christmas, like the Christmas story or in the vein of like, it's a wonderful life. Just that nostalgic view of what Christmas was in our childhood. And something that's timeless and he executed it and made something that is extremely special. So we love it. I love the timelessness and the nostalgia of that. And you're right, it does kind of have this a Christmas story feel. Obviously, the language is is a little bit cleaner and some of the themes are are obviously more Christ centric here. But in this film, you have the Herdsman family that they are the the terror of the town and even to adults.

4:22 And it's they're really on the outskirts of town and you don't see the parents at all. But here are these kids now. I know as a I've worked with youth as like a like leading missions trips. Right. And you know, that's difficult enough. But if you're trying to get kids to act nuance for the facial expressions and everything for this for a film, which that's so important. You guys did such a great job casting this group of kids, especially the girl that played Imogene, who's like the leader of the Herdsman's. My goodness, I was looking through her IMDB.

5:03 I'm like, she has to be on something much bigger than this. Yeah. Like this is this could be a breakout thing for her. Totally. I mean, it's a she's a revelation in this one. Like this little girl Beatrice, Dallas founder, she just wanted a fresh face. He wanted somebody that this absolutely disappeared in the role. And so this beautiful little 12 year old redheaded girl image that plays Imogene. So Beatrice was the one. And so, you know, it was a magic moment. The idea of the story is that there's this town of Emanuel that has been stuck in time for 75 years doing the same pageant play every year. For 75 years, that changed so much. So much so that they treat the Christmas pageant as sacred.

5:44 And they've forgotten that it's the story that inspired the pageant, that the story of Christmas is what's sacred. But they've lost the meaning of Christmas until the Herdsman, like you said, the bad kids in town, they kind of get dropped in it like a landmine. And they think everybody's going to think that they're going to ruin it. But these kids from the wrong side of the tracks that are almost like refugees are the ones that understood the true meaning of the story, they kind of understood it for the first time. The audience did too. And so there's this beautiful climactic moment at the end of the film. And this little girl Beatrice is going to perform this moment. And the moment when I saw it for the first time, brought me as a crusty old filmmaker to tears, like I was crying.

6:27 And because her performance was so innocent and so heartfelt and unexpected. And so Dallas pulled her to the side. And right before they filmed it, he said, I've been dreaming of this moment for 20 years. When I first started dreaming of this moment, you weren't even born. And I'm so glad for the timing of this film, because the moment is yours. You're the one that was meant to tell the story. And she just broke down crying. He cried. It was a moment. And Beatrice just absolutely sticks the landing. It just is a nuanced, such a great performance and the heart of the story. And it'll make you cry young or old. It's something to the whole family. Yeah. And I love even just the way that the story is retold.

7:10 Of course, you know, the they stay very true to the story, at least from my memory. I mean, it's gosh, it's probably 30 some years since I've read the book. But very, very true to that story. All the things that were important, I remember, especially bringing the ham. Like that was one of those moments where you have the different people having this realization of like, you know, that's like that's better than gold frankincense and myrrh for them. And like it really chokes you up. And I've said too much already, because everybody needs to go watch this film in theaters. That's super important. You will choke up. You will cry about this whenever this moment happens. But, you know, Andy, I I listened to your podcast, the storytellers podcast.

7:54 And you and Dallas had an amazing conversation about the making of this film and other other stories that you've had along the way as well. You made mention of this concept of when you were filming, when you were part of like the ESPN films and how you were looking at other other camera guys and how they were with inches of your shot and how you and Dallas have kind of this same understanding of filmmaking and how you can kind of work sympathically with that. I did I make up a word? I'm not sure. But tell me about that. Tell me about that. That that that connection that you guys have as filmmakers working together as opposed to do it my way or do it this way or whatever. Tell me about that.

8:38 You know, the story you're talking about back in the we talk about on the podcast and I appreciate you listening and watching it. We have a lot of fun with it. But I asked I told him back in the day when I worked for ESPN, I was a cameraman and we were I was on the best college football crew out there was this Saturday Night Prime crew. And everybody on that crew was an all star. You didn't get on that crew if you let you in also. And so I wrote I read the random the far side handheld that gets the slow mo shots at the ball in the air and that type of stuff. And the guy that was the near side handheld, we had the same camera on different sidelines and we were both trained by the same person. And I knew that I never had to check where he was.

9:18 But whenever I would line up to get my shot and I'd shoot from my knees about a certain distance from the line of scrimmage, I would be shooting from my knees. I could look across the field and know that he was lined up two inches from where I was because we just instinctively knew our job. And sometimes the ball went his way and sometimes the ball went my way. But we got to celebrate that we whoever got the shot, we were making a great show. And it was just a privilege to get to go to work every day with the best. So for me, with Dallas, it's you know, it's exciting. I you know, he told the story that when I was an American underdog with my brother, he showed up on set one day and I was directing a scene with Dennis Quaid was the press conference scene and he's playing coach Vermeer.

10:00 And and you know, in between takes, I'm kind of, you know, directing Dennis and talking to him about the scene. And he said, I watched Andy and I was like, that's exactly how I do my job. And so and then for this one, you know, to be on set, I tried to tread lightly as a producer when I step on another filmmaker set. Like, I'm not here to control it. It's it's his set. And when I showed up, he pulls me up the monitor and he's like, hey, watch this and kind of check me and see how I'm doing. And like, I'd love to throw out some ideas of what you think. I'm like, I'm like, great. So I'm watching him. And I watched him direct, you know, you know, Imogen or Beatrice. And I watched him just the things that he did, the technique of how he directed or I'm like, that's exactly it.

10:42 That's it within two inches of where I would have lined up. That's exactly how I would have done it. And so there's a mutual admiration when you get to it. I found that when when people that are good at their job work with each other, instead of there being a heightening leader, there's a lessening like I'm there because Dallas does great work. He doesn't need me. But I get to kind of go there and kind of best idea wins and we collaborate. And then ultimately, it's his story to tell. And so I really love that as a storyteller of collaborating with other really good ones to do stories that matter. And I think our audience deserves the best. And Dallas is one of the best. And so this one, his fingerprints are all over it of a special Christmas classic.

11:22 And we're lined up to have a really special weekend that I think of the stars aligned this weekend. I think we could be very competitive at the top. So we'll see. Then theaters Friday is me also. Yeah, it's going to be great. And that's Friday, November 8th, and it's going to be in theaters. We're believing that it's going to go through Christmas because I love that. That's one of the things that we need to do. We need to support films like this whenever they are in theaters. Get out there because then the theaters and all the big Hollywood execs see people want to see this film specifically, and they're going to keep it in the theater so that more people can find it, which is really, really great. And so it's it's all about timing. You got to get there on timing.

12:03 And really, it took Dallas Jenkins like 20 years to make this film. And this has been in his heart this whole time. But God had to do things to prepare him for this to be made for the year 2024. Andy, whenever you guys came together, what was your thoughts about like working together and what is the overall goal? Obviously, you want to tell a great story. You want people to have a great moment, maybe together as their families. But what did you guys feel God's touch on this? What did you feel God was saying about this project? You know, it's exciting with the timing of it all this because Dallas talked about on the podcast as well, like when we made the announcement about Kingdom Story Company, the idea was to provide a destination for filmmakers to do what they do and and to kind of service our audience and to be able to provide quality entertainment.

12:58 They could take the whole family to that shows the power of redemption and results in this rush of hope. And, you know, that was the dream. But that original pitch didn't involve Dallas, and he was outside the door with this tiny little booth promoting his Bible show, The Chosen, that nobody had really heard about, you know, outside of his court. And and, you know, it seemed like the moment was ours. Little did we know that the guy that was right outside that door was going to just kind of change Christian entertainment forever. And, you know, and so to see the show and the life that it's had and how it's expanded and just the moment that he's had the timing for the timing to be able to to kind of come full circle and for us to be able to do this together.

13:46 I think definitely what we want is to create a piece of entertainment that is worth the price of admission for the whole family. And this movie has heart, it has humor, it's genuinely laugh out loud, funny. And the quality has gotten better and better. And Lionsgate, our distributor has continued to double and triple down on our audience. But then ultimately, the goal is the world desperately needs hope and they need to be reminded about the reason of the season. And Jesus needs to be back on the forefront of Christmas. And this movie does that. And so it's the whole point of the movie is unto you, the child is born. And the herdmen are the one to reintroduce this whole town of Emmanuel to the real reason being it being a gift.

14:28 And people need that right now. Amen. People do need that right now. So get to the theaters November 8th and and beyond. As long as it's in theaters, go see it. Bring your family, bring your friends. Take take a loved one that you don't normally go see a movie with and take them to see this. You're going to really appreciate this and succeed with people that you love. It's going to be one of those wonderful Christmas films that you want to see year after year after year. Andy Erwin, thank you so much for taking the time to share with us about this powerful film. That is going to be a classic for sure. God bless you. And we look forward to the next time we get to talk about how the kingdom's stories are moving forward. Thanks, John. Really appreciate you, buddy.