Faith Base

By Collin Dever

ORLANDO, Fla.--In the recent years, Hollywood has begun catering to Christian audiences based on the success of such blockbuster hits as "Passion of the Christ" which made 610 million dollars. Creating a new market for faith based movies.

David Nixon an Orlando based filmmaker is one such person Hollywood turned to, to create faith based films and his movie "Letters to God" will be in theaters this spring.

"We wanted to create something that would give people hope." Said Nixon. "The movie is just a catalyst to get people to dialogue."

The movie, which is based on a true story, centers around a young boy afflicted with cancer who begins writing letters to God in order to help those people around him who are struggling.

Nixon's movies are far from the Hollywood standard. "We started everyday in prayer," said Nixon. Always present on the set during the movie were prayer warriors whose job was to pray from the moment the director said action until he said cut.

When it came to marketing "We used Mel Gibson's model." said Nixon "He took the movie to the church and gave it away." Because the movie deals with faith and cancer Nixon has implemented marketing strategies to reach out to those audiences.

To reach the cancer market the production team is marketing to the top 30 cancer organizations. Nixon has offered all of the organizations a free screening of the movie as a fundraiser, and in return having them spread to the word to the millions of people on their email lists.

Nixon built a name for himself doing faith based films when he volunteered with a church in Georgia to help make the movie "Facing the Giants" and "Fireproof" as a assistant director and co-producer.

Nixon is already beginning work on his next movie which he hopes to shoot over the summer. When Nixon raised the funds for "Letters to God" he raised ten million dollars enough to make three movies, and he has pledge to help the church from Georgia whenever they are ready to make another movie.

"Letters to God" will open in theaters April 9 the weekend after Easter Sunday.