A movie about the “Jesus People” movement is coming to the big screen in the form of Lionsgate’s Jesus Revolution. Inspired by the true story of the national spiritual awakening in the early 1970s and its origins within a bunch of teenaged hippies in Southern California.
Deadline is reporting that:
Gaffigan is Chuck Smith, the real-life pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, who served as a mentor to Greg Laurie. Chuck famously opened his church to a generation of hippies and seekers, helping to launch the last great spiritual revival in America.
Joel Courtney will play Greg Laurie, a counterculture teen in the late 1960s seeking meaning and purpose, who eventually joined the Jesus Revolution in Southern California and went on to start Harvest Christian Fellowship, one of the largest congregations in America.
In a statement about the movie, Gaffigan said:
“This is a distinctly American story of rebirth, The late 1960s and early 1970s were a time when spirituality was on the wane, leaving a lot of people searching for answers in other places. I’m excited to play a pastor who helped make a home for the people most desperate for those answers and built a congregation – a coming together of people – to make something greater than themselves.”
The movie will be directed by Jon Gunn, who directed 2017’s The Case for Christ and 2015’s Do You Believe? Both were released by Pureflix Entertainment and received relatively wide releases.
There is no word on whether or not the film will cover some of Chuck Smith’s controversies, such as allegations that he tolerated sexual and financial improprieties within the Calvary Chapel movement, or his teaching that the world would end in 1981.
