“I know you all want answers, and believe me, so do I.”
Last week, Producer/Co-writer Paul Lalonde joined several of his cast, along with Director Vic Armstrong, via teleconference to discuss Left Behind. Yes . . . that Left Behind, based on the series from authors Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye. You may be having déjà vu, because Lalonde already filmed Left Behind starring Kirk Cameron in 2000.
For those unfamiliar, the Left Behind novels focus on the Christian rapture, specifically how those who were not chosen deal with the New World Order that follows. I read the books through Nicolae. After that, I lost interest, because I felt the series was agenda-driven proselytizing. What kept me turning pages though, was the almost non-stop action and intrigue of the characters. When I heard that Nicolae Cage, uhm, I mean Nicolas Cage would be playing Raymond Steele, I was enthused to find out more. [Swift aside: Sorry, Nic, but get used to that joke, as I am sure fans of the novels will have no mercy with the obvious word-play.]
So, why did they feel the need to re-make this film?
Lalonde admits that with the first straight-to-DVD movie, they were working with a very limited budget and tried to cram too much into the film which didn’t let the audience really get to know the characters. He expressed his passion for the new project, “Basically the movie is based on 25 pages of the first Left Behind book. So it’s really a remake of about three minutes of the first Left Behind movie.” Given that statement, I am guessing we will definitely have time to connect to each character.
Lalonde was incredibly excited to get A-list talent to go with his budget, former stunt legend, Vic Armstrong directed the project. Armstrong had this to say about what to expect, “I have to tell stories with visual action. And to read this script and see how character-driven it was and what a fabulous story-line it had was a thrill to me!” Armstrong explained to Lalonde that he loved the script so much he couldn’t see a word in it he would’ve changed. That’s pretty rare in Hollywood, folks.
Nicolas Cage was initially drawn to the film for the family dynamic in the script and only later found out it was “faith-based” after speaking to his brother, Mark who is a Christian pastor. “Mark said, you know, Nicky, you’ve really got to do this. When I saw how passionate he was, I thought, well, yeah I want to make this movie for my brother too.” Cage was also happy to be working with Vic Armstrong again, following their work in 2011’s Season of the Witch together.
Cage is no stranger to what he calls “spiritual themed” films, and I was impressed with his stoic stance that his spirituality is something that is personal to him and not for public, media consumption. It’s nice to know some things, even in Hollyweird, are sacred.
Lea Thompson portrays Irene Steele, but was sadly not on the teleconference. A fairly well-known television actress, Cassi Thomson plays Irene and Raymond’s daughter, Chloe Steele. Cassi was thrilled to be working on this feature, in fact she was shocked to have gotten the part. “I mean I honestly thought I would never book it. Just because, I you know, I’m not a big A-Lister name.” When asked about playing Chloe, Cassi mentioned that Chloe begins the film as a true agnostic, just someone who never put much thought into faith, and in fact she rebels against her mother who recently became interested in knowing more about God. But one endearing quality that Chloe seems to have is that while her family seems to always be at the root of her struggles, she loves them very much and she gets to show that in the film.
My favorite character of the novels was Hattie Durham, a woman who has very few scruples and believes in pretty much what is in front of her and how she can gain from that. Enter, Nicky Whelan, the Aussie lass who gets to provide some of the very limited comedy relief during the action-packed apocalypse. Hattie is a flight-attendant on Raymond’s plane, but that is just how she starts out the series. Nicky was, of course, thrilled to be in such an action-packed film directed by Vic Armstrong and opposite Nicolas Cage, “As an actress to be a part and work with these particular people. And obviously of course getting to work alongside Nicolas Cage, he was someone you grow up watching your whole life.”
While this article really only scratches the surface of the entire 80 minute call, which you can listen to here. I hope I captured the overall message from each person on the call.
