Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / Until Now, No Modern Film Had Ever Been Made About George Washington

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Until Now, No Modern Film Had Ever Been Made About George Washington · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey, John, thanks for joining me. Hey, thank
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Michael Victor having me in the audience. John er Win,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: director of the hit film Young Washington, which Sean Tollywood
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: by finishing third over the fourth of July weekend. John,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: describe your emotions when you realize that audiences were embracing
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Young Washington and then as you watched her to become
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a box office hit. I'm so grateful for the audience,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: but you know it, felk Wait, You're gonna have to
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: stop using the word shocked, because the Middle American audience
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: is uh as our voice had been heard once again,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: if he'll put it that way. And I'm just very
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: very rateful to everyone in Ghost and See movies. It's
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: why we get to make them, and also incredibly grateful
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: in that, you know, the laugh things that I've done
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: are the story that I've been dreaming of the longest
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and I've been dreaming of doing the story of Paved
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: since I was sixteen years old, and I've been dreaming
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: of doing the story Washington for over a decade. And
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I just really fell in love with the story of
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the revolution and Washington specifically, and if I just really
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: was awt Druck by the party of our nation's birth,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you know, and our origin story. And I was filled
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: with such odd wonder and hope and stroopship you now
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and so I think, you know, to be able to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: tell those stories being just an honor. It's a privilege
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: of lifetime. And my hope is that the movie will
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: be for others you know what happened to me, which
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: is just a spark of turiofity that will be in
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: people's journey. You know that the film should pub me
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the end of the journey. My hope within at the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: beginning of the journey of learning about our nation again
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: and learning why we're here. I think so many of
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the problems that we're having something the fact that we
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: don't know our origin story. One thing that stood out
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: to me, John was how Washington pushes back against the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: colonial class system. It almost feels like a preview of
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the America's rejection of royalty and class. Was it that
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: intentional in the film? Yeah, I mean that you really
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: do sate this moment where, you know, with his character
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: realized is just how unfair the world is, and so
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: hekes had to make a better one. And America really
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: is that place where anyone from anywhere should be able
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to do anything. I mean, that's the idea, and it
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't always the case, you know, it was not a
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: fair system, and so I think I think it's just
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: it's very interesting to see that it was in this
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: chapter of his life where he would deny it intrigue
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: and he just wanted a world to be based off merit.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: And that's the world that we created in America. And
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you see that frustration in the young lack of was Washington.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: That's absolutely accurate to his character at the time. There
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: was just you know, he was raising against an unfair world.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: The film has earned praise for its historical accuracy. How
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: much research went into making sure that you got the
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: d tells right. Years of research went in, if you know,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I had a good fortune of just getting obsessed with
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the story, but not in order to make a song out.
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  Speaker 1: I just legitimately just loved the story and loved this
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: period of history, and so I read oh Man probably
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: thirty books, you know, over the course of several years,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and just really researched the time period for my felt
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and I had incredible co writers and then also we
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: had incredible historians. Consoled on the project. In fact, there's
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: a YouTube video that Angel put out first time I've
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: ever been able to do something like this, where I
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: sat down for an hour with several of the historians
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  Speaker 1: and consultants that were as obsessed with Washington as I
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  Speaker 1: am and had written many great books on the issue.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: And it was a fascinating It's a fascinating discussion, and
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: we got to discuss like, here are the things that
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: you decide when you adapt the true story, and here
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: are the changes you make, and here's the compression of time,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: and you know, characters that you have to composit together
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and all these things. And yet I've often I heard
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: her or Can say, you know, when you're doing a movie,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: you're not trying to take the photograph. You're trying to
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: paint an accurate portrait of the character. And that really
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: was the question. So my hope is that anyone that
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: sees it understands that the movie was done with incredible
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: care and passion for Washington themselves and for our country.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Do you see this film, John as one that everyone
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: can embrace the left and the right in our nation. Look,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I think this movie is a love letter to America.
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  Speaker 1: That's why we made it, and we are all co
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: owners and co authors of the American experiment, and it
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: is still an experiment to this day. And one of
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: a word that was actually a truck out of the
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: decoration of the Independence was the word subject and it
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: was replaced for the word citizens. And that's such a concept.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: You know, this is all of ours all, we all
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: own it together. And you know the fact that we
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: get to disagree and argue is one of the things
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: that makes America unique. And so even the fact that
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: we have a party system as Austraightia that can be
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: is one of the things that makes us unique because
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: we're able to disagree because we're all holders of the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: company together. It's government of the people. And so one
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  Speaker 1: of my hopes if the movie was just that it
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: couldn't create a place where we could celebrate the nation together.
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  Speaker 1: It's imperfect, but it's still worth believing in, and it's
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: still a conflant quest to form a more perfect unit.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: And and I believe that this is a movie for everyone.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Wors Washington is in the first founding father of America,
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  Speaker 1: for every American and Battay, I hope the movie is
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  Speaker 1: received and that will permit our heart making it to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: create a reason for all of us to celebrate together.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: You've announced the new film seventeen seventy six. That's it's
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: it's being written right now. Would you call it a
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: direct sequel to young Washington or kind of Will it
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: broaden the focus to America's founding and other key figures
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: or do you even know? Yeah, well it certainly that
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: is another chapter in which Washington is the central figure.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Now it's a different decades later, so it would be
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a different cast. But it is the next great chapter
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: in his life that I want to tell, and it
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: will also broaden into an ensemble. So while he is
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the Iron Man that avengers universe, the characters to me
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: by the time you get the seventy six and it's mean,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: you know, the largest amphibiously ever simbled in the history
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: of the world, with heshing mercenaries, was sent to crush
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: our rebellion, and that unstoppable forest hit an immovable object
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: that was Washington. And so I've wanted to tell that story,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: and it's an incredible story. So you envision this, it's
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: becoming a larger series of patriotic films. In other words,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: you have like third, fourth, fifth, chapter down the road
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: in your mind all free. There's so many stories that
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: are great. I mean there really are. Like the faunthing
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of America is incredible. So while I'm taking it one
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: project at a time, the goal with doing Young Washington
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was to allow
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: for America's story to be told again. I just think
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the origin story of America need to be told again.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: It's a torch passed down from generation to generation. So
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: my hope is that there's more films than television shows
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I want to make on the subject matter. I hope
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: that other filmmakers will see the success of Washington and
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: there'll be other films in this category. But yeah, we
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: we just begun to fight and for the audience, and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: just I'm so grateful for you, know what we sent
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: for so many years, and you've been so helpful to
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: us and getting a word out that your movie ticket
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: really is your vote. And once again we have spoken
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: with what matters to us. And so my hope is
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: that this will be the beginning of kind of reintroducing
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: America to itself through film entertainment. And I hope people
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: love the movie. I mean, we wanted to make an
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  Speaker 1: action film that is meant for multiple generations, and it
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: really is. I've always considered it like Pride and Bridges
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  Speaker 1: needs the Revenant, and it's exciting, hopefully, and it's entertaining.
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  Speaker 1: But in my opinion, you can't help but be proud
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  Speaker 1: of our country and those that founded it. You know,
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  Speaker 1: win the credits roll on this movie, and I think
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  Speaker 1: that there's several other stories that would have that same reaction.
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• 8:26
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• 8:29
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• 8:32
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• 8:37
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• 8:42
  Speaker 1: See you next time,