Fireproof: When Filmmakers Believe in Miracles

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"The Kendrick brothers are the target audience," says Kris Fuhr, vice president of marketing for Provident Films, a faith-based unit of Sony BMG Music that has marketed the brothers' last two movies. "Sometimes people think to reach Christian audiences you just have a movie with no swearing in it and that's enough. It's not. In Sherwood's movies you have a very overt depiction of faith."

The Kendricks' casts are usually composed of church members. But it was the filmmakers' wear-your-faith-on-your-sleeve quality that attracted the first name actor to a Sherwood production. Cameron, best known as dimpled troublemaker Mike Seaver from the '80s sitcom Growing Pains, has re-invented himself as an active figure in the Christian community with his Evangelical TV and radio series The Way of the Master. After seeing Facing the Giants, Cameron asked to audition for the Kendricks' next film. "So often movies that try to incorporate a message of faith are so cheesy and I've been in some of those cheesy movies," Cameron says. "Fireproof isn't that." Instead of a fee, Cameron accepted a donation to his charity, Camp Firefly.

The Kendricks' business model is hardly one a major studio could replicate. Unlike a typical Hollywood set, on a Sherwood set, Cameron says, "You don't have people walking around saying 'They don't pay me enough to do this,' cause nobody's getting paid anything." The filmmakers relied on a team of 1,200 volunteers, plus a handful of technical crew members working below rate. They also secured a donated train, hospital wing and fire trucks. Rather than the usual TV spots and billboards, Fireproof's marketers invited Christian publications on set and screened the film early for pastors and church groups. "This audience has to actually feel the fabric," says Meyer Gottlieb, president of Samuel Goldwyn Films. "The marketing is more grass roots."

The end result was a movie that, in box office terms, held its own with A-list Hollywood stars and directors. "Hollywood is gifted at high production quality and acting," says Alex. "But their morals and life perspectives are so different from the rest of us. New York and California seem to have one type of culture and then there's the rest of America. We're trying to make movies that speak to what we believe the American family struggles with — communication, financing, intimacy."

Since Fireproof's release the Kendrick brothers have fielded meeting invitations from two studios and one TV production company. But they say they're taking a little break from the biz. Says Alex, "We're going to focus on church ministries and our families for the next few months before we dive into our next script."

Click here to see Richard Schickel's top 10 films from the 85-year history of Warner Bros. studio.