Kevin Sorbo Brings Faith Into Film
21:04 Share

This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required.

It's Live in the Bream with the host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. This week on Live in the Bream, we've got somebody you're going to know. He is an actor, a producer, an author. He starred in TV and movies. He's a philanthropist. He's a husband. He's a dad. And he's got a brand new movie out called The Firing Squad. Kevin Sorbo, welcome to Live in the Bream. Good.

Good to be here. Good talking to you. It's been a while. It has. And listen, this is this new movie. And you and I have talked about this. My mom has gotten a chance to see it. And I said, Mom, I'm relying on you as my film critic because I'm not going to get a chance to see this before. By the way, she says, hi, her name is Marie. She said, tell Kevin I said hi.

I love that. Thank you. She had nothing but good to say about this movie. She said it was such a beautiful story. And we'll let you tell us a little bit about that, because this is based on a true story. And she said the bottom line message about redemption and faith was just so beautiful. She was in tears. Her friends who went with her in tears. And she said this is a movie she thinks should be shown at every jail, every prison around the world, because there is a message of hope to it. So tell us about the story, how you got involved and what we need to know about the movie.

Well, number one, it's funny your mom mentioned that because we said this once we saw, you know, started editing the movie saying this should go into every single prison, not only in America, but around the world. Because it's really a story about redemption and hope. And if you can find it on death row in a prison, in a foreign prison, then you can find redemption anywhere. And it's a true story. Cuba Gooding Jr. and I are in it. We kind of have secondary roles in it. It's really the

The main role is his character that sort of comes in as he's fresh meat, so to speak, and gets in a prison. But my character had been in prison now for 35 years. He actually was an American touring down there. He was surfing in Indonesia and he got in a fight with a local and he killed the man and he got arrested and he got the death penalty in Indonesia. The death penalty to this day is still the firing squad.

And while he's in prison, he found God. He found Jesus. He became a pastor. And during the decades remaining in his life in that prison, hell, he saved many souls, not only inmates, but guards alike. And he was finally executed in 2015. So he was executed for his crime. And he accepted what had happened because he says, like he says in the movie, he says, look, I deserve this. I brought this on myself. And now God found me here in this prison.

This this foreign prison on death row and showed me I can still do something with my life. So the reaction we're getting is exactly what your mom said. We're getting people that there are people standing up at the end of the movie, applauding, crying. It's it's amazing, touching movie. And I hope everybody gets out there and sees it. And the best way to do is go to firing squad film dot com firing squad film dot com. Throw in your zip code and I'll let you know what theaters are near you.

Fantastic. So, I mean, like you said, if you can find hope on death row, then all of us, whatever we are struggling with or facing in our lives, and listen, there's life and death stuff. There are blows that come to us in life we would never choose.

But you're saying that there is really hope to be found in any situation. And if it's not a death row, I can't imagine a worse place, but maybe a place where you're most awake to your need and to the real, you know, eternal conversations you have to be having. And I imagine that's part of why this faith movement spread through such a place of despair. Yeah.

Yeah, no question. I mean, Tim Che was the director of this movie. He brought it to me. I've known him for a long time. We've never worked together. We've been trying to work together for years.

We finally found the time and the right script at the right time in the right place. And we shot this. And I remember when they were filming a scene outside the prison and I walked into the prison by myself. It's this is a prison that we shot. We actually shot it in northern Florida here. It's a prison that's been shut down for about 30 years, but it's still there. People use it for sites for movies. And it's just a big chunk of land that's got these buildings that are just sort of, you know, rusting away. And I walked in the prison by myself and it was at nighttime.

And I sat in one of the cells in these little tiny beds. They can't be more. It's got to be like 10 feet by 8 feet, these cells and two bunk beds, you know, bolted in the walls. And I sat there and tried to put myself. I couldn't help but put myself in that position of saying, my God, what if you're in here just for five years of your life, five years of your life? I don't need to go to a scared, straight place.

episode with some guy yelling at me, I'm getting in my face. And is this where you want to be the rest of your life to sitting right there made me go, wow, I never want to end up in prison ever because it's my gosh, it's, it is horrible. And what those people had to go through at that prison. And I, it's just, it just blows my mind that this guy was able to do what he was able to do.

And when this other prisoner comes in, whose story really centers around him, I look at him sort of like Hacksaw Ridge, where if you saw that movie that Mel Gibson did, where the guy goes up there fighting right there on that island against the Japanese. And he said, God, let me save one more. Let me save one more. And that was my character in this movie. I said, let me save one more because this 20 some year old kid coming into prison on death row as well, reminded myself 30 years earlier. And I said, let me save one more before you take me.

And it's just it's a very touching, very moving movie. And I love the fact that it's a true story. I'm very attracted to movies like that. And by the way, I got thrown very quickly. I am in the Reagan movie, Dennis Quaid. So that's coming out the end of this month as well. Yeah, you've got a busy August of these projects that sound like they're really deeply meaningful to you. I mean, just to find work as an actor is a little bit of a miracle in itself. But to be able to do projects you really care about and we've been able to spotlight you and others in

in faith-based movies. And I've talked to some folks within Hollywood who are not necessarily faithful people themselves, but they now see the value in this, that these audiences are going to turn up, that people want something that is redemptive. Tell me about that and your journey, because you were really kind of one of the pioneers in getting these movies that do have a faith message really to the top of the box office charts. And that's got to spur more investment in this kind of movie.

Well, I started back and I'm one of the first people doing it because of back. I mean, it's Kirk Cameron. All of us were doing it years before I was. But 2010 was really my first faith based movies called What If. And I've shot over 90 movies. What if is in my top three? It's the same writers that God's not dead. And obviously God's not dead, which came out a few years later, was a massive hit. But in my book, what if it's a far better movie?

Dallas Jenkins directed it. He's doing The Chosen right now. Great success with that. But I keep telling Dallas, we should release this movie because the trouble with independent movies is we don't have $100 million advertising budget when you shoot a movie for $3 million. We got to compete against Hollywood stuff. And you want to see the woke crap that they're putting out there. Pardon my French, but I get so tired of it. And Disney lost over a billion dollars last year, and they're still pushing their woke agenda on all of us still.

Which makes me wonder if some of our tax dollars are going to Disney from our current government just to keep their messages going and let people normalize things the way they keep doing. So we need people to support these movies. We need people to go out. I get stopped all the time and I don't get stopped because of Hercules or Andromeda anymore. I get stopped because of God's not dead. What if let there be light? And this is what people stop me for and say, please keep making more movies like this. Well, without the support of people.

We're not going to, these movies will go away. And there's a big audience out there. There's no question. There's 80 million homes out there that want the kind of movies that I've been lucky enough to be involved in. And I got to show it there really quick. I'm the first cancel culture victim in Hollywood. I mean, my agent manager booted me out for being a Christian, the conservative 10 years ago, I've been on my own through Sorbo studios. So I encourage people to go to sorbostudios.com, sign up, keep up to date with everything that my wife and I are doing. She's a homemaker.

homeschool advocate. She travels the country to that does speaking everywhere. I do speaking on pro-life. I do speaking, speaking on motivation, health, all these kinds of things. And I've been very blessed to keep my career going without Hollywood being involved in my life at all. Yeah, that's a little bit of a miracle too. And by the way, I burned through many, many, many tissues through Let There Be Light for the two of you. An amazing project also that was very inspiring. And I do think

that people have a hunger and thirst for something that will feel redemptive and hopeful because so much of what's out in the world is not hopeful. And so many of these movies that come out, there's such a dark theme to them with horror and, you know, very evil spiritual warfare kind of things and stuff. So, like I said, you know, talking to some people within the industry who say like, I'm not a Christian, I'm not a believer, but we see what happens with these movies and

and that they can be very well produced and acted and the scores and all of these things, and that people show up. And so if anything, Hollywood likes to make money, like all industries, they want to have success. And they do know it's about these audiences showing up, which you rightfully encourage them. Like if you want to see this kind of stuff, you got to get out there and be supportive when it does hit the theaters so that that message is there like, okay,

People do want things that they feel like are going to feed their faith and feed the better parts of community and society that we want to encourage. And I will say in this movie, and you allude to this too, I mean, it doesn't, the character's problems don't all go away because they come to faith. But what the faith allows them to do is to walk into the, what for us as humans are the most frightening and scary things, and to do so with the confidence of their convictions and the hope and the comfort of that.

Yeah, I mean, no question. And that's what these movies are really all about. I don't want to do movies that say you better believe in God or you're going to hell. I want to do movies that inspire people and motivate them and realize that there is hope out there. There is potential for redemption out there, no matter what path you're walking on. Because you see what's going on in our country right now, in our world. I mean, it's violent, it's hateful, it's divisive. People are angry. People are, you know, the attacks through the Internet, the attacks through television and movies and our press are

I mean, people are looking for something right now. And COVID is just sort of the, you know, sort of tip things over. People have said enough is enough already with all this control using fear as a weapon. And people are just looking for something. And the kind of movies I do, I've been very blessed. You mentioned Let There Be Light. Let There Be Light opened number two per screen average.

Wow. Against Thor Ragnarok. And by the way, Sean Hannity funded Let There Be Light. My wife wrote it. My wife and I starred in it. I directed it. And we opened up number two against a $300 million movie. I get a call from Netflix after the opening weekend saying, hey, we want to talk to you about, you know, opening inspirational division here at Netflix. Well, I had four meetings over the next four or five weeks with these guys. And ultimately they did nothing.

Their ideology and whatever is just I look at this room and I knew half the people are agreeing with me, but they're afraid They're afraid to speak up I get actors directors the camera people makeup people every set I've been on the last I

Probably last seven years. And I've shot at least 30 movies over the last seven years. They come up to me quietly and say, thank you for being a voice for us. I go, be a voice for yourself. Stop being afraid. And they go, well, I don't get blacklisted like you. Yeah, Hollywood blacklisted me. It's immature what they did. But here we are. You're on a movie that I'm doing and you're with me. So you're still doing this movie. So I don't know.

The battle is out there and I'm going to keep fighting it. I'm going to keep doing good movies. I've got three documentaries that are done coming out. I've got two of the movies. I just finished a movie with Mari Van Peebles, another true story set in the 1950s. And I'm just very blessed to keep on making movies. Do you think there is some shift, though? Do you think that has the potential to gain momentum within Hollywood?

Yeah. I mean, this we're talking this back in 2018 with what to be like. And I think there's more and more people not afraid to come out now. I'm getting emails through Sorbo Studios from, you know, people have done huge movies. I mean, directors of photography, lighting guys, makeup.

saying, I really want to work with one of your movies, Kevin, because I want to do a movie my kids will be proud of. That's what I'm getting from people in Hollywood right now. And these are not necessarily believers as well. They just want to do a movie that's got a good message instead of a negative one. We'll have more Live in the Bream in a moment.

The Will Cain Show is now dropping five episodes a week. Join Fox & Friends weekend host Will Cain as he tackles the latest headlines from his unique perspective, along with thought-provoking interviews with leading figures and live calls from viewers and listeners. Listen wherever you download your favorite podcasts.

Let's talk about this movie in particular, Firing Squad, the possibility that it would end up somewhere that would would play in prisons would play. I mean, do you think it has a possibility to spark revivals there, whether it's in homes or churches, prisons? I mean, what do you hope is the ultimate impact of this movie?

Well, I know Tim Che was hoping that he brings a million souls to Christ. That's what he hopes his mother does. And we have talked about it. So I love what your mom said. We talked about bringing into prisons. And I don't think that's going to be a problem at all. You know, we get a hold of someone like Jack Brewer could help to lead the way with that.

But I mean, all we got to do is just get out and do it. I don't think they would stop it. I mean, if anything, it's more of a positive than negative. So I believe Tim eventually make that happen. Once it finishes the theatrical run here, I think that's the next game plan. Not only DVDs and streamings, of course, but I think to to mass produce and send it out to every person out there.

How did these kinds of things come together? You talked about being approached by different scripts and different stories. I mean, who's working on this stuff? How does funding come together, especially if it's, you know, starts as something that's more modest? It's faith based. You don't have a huge studio behind it. How does this kind of project come together?

Timing, luck, God, combination of everything. I spend my days looking for funding for my movies. And I don't do, I mean, look, my movies are in the three to four million range for the most part. And I know at home they listen to that's a lot of money, but people know, I mean, that's catering budget and pirates of the Caribbean. Those are $300 million movies you're competing against. So, but it shows you that you can do movies without all the special effects. I like doing movies.

I don't mind the special effects movie. They're fun, like a rollercoaster ride. But the reality is I like doing movies that made me fall in love and want to be an actor in the first place. Movies that have character-driven stories. You know, you walk out and you talk about the characters. I don't walk out of Avengers and go, oh, wow, wasn't that a great motivational message there? Well, no. It was just a fun ride with most of it CGI. Yeah.

To me, I like doing movies that make people talk. I relate to the person on screen or I know there's somebody like that. I get people saying, I became a believer because of your movies. And to me, that's...

That's the best compliment I could possibly get. Yeah. Cause trust me, I made a lot more money doing Hercules and I'm making much, much now. I'm doing, I'm doing things now that I really enjoy doing. Right. And have meaning and sort of a labor. So explain to us who are not Hollywood folks to understand this. I mean, even once you get something made, there's the issue of distribution. You got to get this into the theaters or streaming or wherever it's going to go. How does that work?

- Well, number one, you need to find the funder to make the movie, right? They needed the funder for P&A money, as prints and advertising. It's a term that's gone really now 'cause everything's digital, but you still need the promotional work. You still need the advertising to get it up there somehow, somewhere. So you need money for that as well, 'cause you have to pay money to get things in the theaters. Theater owners don't care what they show.

They don't care. They want to they want to sell popcorn and sodas. So you hope that people show up that opening weekend more than anything. You want people to show up because that keeps theaters keeping your movie going. And that it's it's it's just a lot of hard work in the indie world. You got to get out there. You got to reach out to the right people like you to let that audience know, hey, check out this movie. Check it out. So we it's it's a lot of work. I've probably done.

Well over 120 interviews for this movie, whether it's radio, whether it's in person in the studio, whether it's streaming, whatever it may be. I know the same thing for Cuba. Junior's done the same amount. And we we need people to support these movies.

And like I said, they're not going to care what they show. They just want to sell it. You know, they're raising us. But we need people to show up. We need churches to wake up. I mean, the unfortunate thing I see in America, there's so many woke churches right now. I mean, when we first moved to Florida five and a half years ago, we started looking for churches. And you walk up there and the first thing they say, one pastor said, we have to apologize for being white. And I said, OK, I'm done. It's just like...

this is such a weird, crazy world we're living in right now. So, um, to me it's, I, I just work my tail off and pray to God that, uh, we meet the right people at the right time. And that prayers gets answered at once. Well, it got answered recently. I just signed a six picture deal with a company out of Atlanta that wants to do family friendly movies with me. And I'm going to start directing the first of them early next year. Now, do you enjoy directing acting more? Can you do both? And, and, um,

do both effectively on a project. Cause I know that there are different skill sets and you've done both. I have done. I started directing back in my Hercules year. So I love it. You know, I mean, Hercules was easy for me because by season three, you know, it's a family. You're working 12 to 14 hours a day with these people and they, you're with them more than you are than anybody else. So, um, you, you, they trust you, you trust them and you have a great working, uh, collaboration together. Um, I love directing. Uh,

You know, I enjoy doing it. I usually put myself in the movie as well. I look at guys at Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, all these people that have Kevin Costner, all of them do amazing work. I think actors can make very good directors because they know what it's like to be on that side of the camera as well. So.

I look forward to it and I love doing it. It does add to your workload, no question about it. But I'm not an idiot. I surround myself with people that know what they're doing better than me. You know, I want a camera guy that knows more than me. I want a makeup artist that knows more than me and a wardrobe person. So I hire good people. Yeah.

You know, things that most presidents don't do. They don't surprise. I don't think they surround themselves with the right people all the time. So I want to make sure I got a great team around me and I may have my ideas, but I'm always open to what their ideas are as well.

I want to read you a little bit what my mom texted me after she saw the movie. She said, "The message was so well presented by the three excellent main actors and others." She said, "My friend and I sat at the end while they played just the right song and we cried together." And she talked about her friend that she has in Bible study who has, you know, she said to her, she's often questioned her faith, but now she finally believes and feels firmly in her faith because of this. She said, "The music score was excellent.

And she talked about her friend whose son is incarcerated, who was so moved by the movie as well. So, again, we're talking to Kevin Sorbo, who is part of this new movie, The Firing Squad. It is out there in the theaters now. You can check it out and support it. And, Kevin, tell us a little bit more again before we go about how people can find this movie in their community and support it.

Best place to go is the website. It's firingsquadfilm.com. So firingsquadfilm.com has a trailer on there. It has information about the movie, where it was made, how it was made, about the actors involved. And it's certainly the best place to go is just plug in your zip code and it shows you what theaters are near you. All right. Well, The Firing Squad is out now. Kevin, please keep us up to date on everything else that you're working on. As we've talked about, I know people are hungry for things that will be encouraging and hopeful and

and uniting rather than dividing. So we wish you all the best on this movie and projects to come. Thanks for joining us on Live in the Bream. Thank you. Listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app.

Listen to the all-new Brett Baer podcast featuring Common Ground. In-depth talks with lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, along with all your Brett Baer favorites like his all-star panel and much more. Available now at foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.