Left Behind is the most popular religious video and
movie in America just now. But would you like to know the other side of
the story? It involves some of the leading rapturist writers and
speakers in America.
In 1996, Joe Goodman walked into a religious
bookstore, picked up a copy of a new book on the rapture, and looked
inside. Left Behind was the first novel co-authored by Tim LaHaye
and Jerry Jenkins. LaHaye developed the ideas and Jenkins wrote the
book.
At the time, the book had not yet reached the 100,000
sales mark (later it would become the first of a series of Left
Behind rapture books), yet Goodman was fascinated by the plot and
decided it would make an outstanding motion picture.
Goodman already had his own Namesake Entertainment, a
Louisville, Kentucky, firm, which had earlier produced TV films for
Disney and USA Network.
Within several months (in early 1997) he had secured
the film rights, either to the book (LaHaye’s position) or to the book
series (Goodman’s contention).
But Goodman failed to find a Hollywood studio willing
to make the movie. Knowing he had to make the film within three years or
lose on a forfeiture clause, he visited Cloud Ten.
Cloud Ten Pictures was a Toronto, Canada, production
company run by brothers Peter and Paul Lalonde, former Christian
broadcasters.
The Lalondes were already in the end-times film
business, having made a 1998 videotape, Apocalypse, and a 1999
film, Revelation.
Cloud Ten did most of the actual work in making the
movie. Under the arrangement, Goodman and the Lalondes were
co-producers. Cloud Ten signed up a cast and made the movie in Ontario
with a budget, the Lalondes say, of $17.4 million, including marketing.
The movie script told the essentials of what was in the book, although
it veered somewhat.
In order to promote the book, Goodman and the
Lalondes decided on an unusual—and risky—strategy. They released Left
Behind: The Movie on videotape three months ahead of the apocalyptic
thriller’s scheduled box-office opening on February 2, 2001.
The objective was to stir up immense enthusiasm among
evangelicals, who, in turn, would take their unchurched friends to see
the movie. Part of the plan also included enlisting churches to sponsor
theater screenings at $3,000 per screen,—and fill the movie houses
with non-Christians.
Well, that was the plan. But it got left behind.
Although warned that they had better not take such a
risk, everything initially worked out well, for 3 million videos were
sold within the first three months.
But when the movie opened in February, it appeared on
867 screens and only ranked 17th in box-office draw. In the first three
weeks, according to published reports it only grossed $3.7 million. Yet
the movie cost $17.4 million to produce. In comparison, The Omega
Code was one of the top 10 national movies the weekend it was
released.
(Are you wondering how all these movies appear in the
eyes of God? Just read chapter 27, Modern Revivals, in the book,
Great Controversy, and you will have your answer.)
But that is not the end of the story. Now the modern
revivalists are suing one another over Left Behind!
In July 2000, Tim LaHaye, a former pastor and
pro-family activist (and husband of Beverly LaHaye, head of Concerned
Women for America), filed a breach-of-contract suit against Goodman’s
Namesake Entertainment. LaHaye alleges that Namesake promised to spend
more than $40 million on the film, that it would feature big-name
actors, that it would appear in all major media markets by January 1,
2000 (to capitalize on the millennium craze), and that LaHaye would help
select the film’s director. He also accused Namesake of risking a
valuable franchise on a foolish and unproven video-first marketing
scheme.
There was also a blistering argument concerning
whether the contract permitted Goodman to make more movies of the rest
of the books in the series.
Namesake contends that it tried to make a big-budget
film, and the contract gave it three years—till April 2001—to
produce the film.
The fighting waxed hotter. LaHaye said he should also
have part ownership (and receive profits from) T-shirts, jewelry, and
other religious items sold with the movie name on them. But Goodman says
the money will help them turn out more religious films.
Another movie in the series, Tribulation, is
scheduled for release in 2002, but LaHaye is determined, through the
courts, to stop it.
In February 2001, a federal judge in Los Angeles
rejected a motion by the makers of Left Behind: The Movie, which
sought dismissal of LaHaye’s lawsuit.
So North America’s leading Christian rapturists are
busily fighting fellow rapturists in the courts. Will their infighting
and court battles end before their expected rapture to heaven occurs?