ANAHEIM, Calif. — Eight years ago, as writer-director Jon Erwin was researching an unrelated movie project, he stumbled across a 1971 issue of Time magazine, which featured a psychedelic purple picture of Jesus under the headline, “The Jesus Revolution.”
Erwin, who with his brother Andrew Erwin, has a deal with Lionsgate to release faith-based feature films, knows plenty about modern-day American Christianity. But the Time magazine cover, and the story he read after buying a vintage copy of the June 21, 1971, issue on eBay, stopped him in his tracks, he says.
“It was this 10-page spread of this spiritual awakening that was sweeping the country in the most unusual places,” the 40-year-old filmmaker says. “In a lot of places that the established religion would say were off-limits – mainly with hippies. And it was this buoyant, positive, hopeful account of Christianity. A beautiful article.”
