"Heading Home," a faith-based drama about redemption and baseball, was written by local filmmaker De Miller and is slated to go before cameras in Lake County in October.
And the local producers of "Letters to God," the first big faith-based movie shot here, plan to film two more faith-based projects here before the end of the year.
David Nixon, who co-directed "Letters to God," is a firm believer that Central Florida "should be the capital of Christian films. We have world-class facilities, just as good or better than L.A."
Added Miller, "We'd like Central Florida to be 'Holywood' because we want to get the 'L' out of Hollywood."
Unlike Hollywood's blockbusters, these faith-based films are made on micro budgets. "Letters to God," which started this Central Florida boomlet, cost $3.5 million to produce. But the films following in its footsteps have even smaller budgets - ranging from $785,000 for "Ryann Watters and the King's Sword" to $70,000 for "The Whisper Home."
Most are made with lots of donated labor, locations and gear. "Ryann Watters" was shot on cameras donated by a church member, said Kerry L. Fink, CEO of TYG Studios, the film's producers.
"We tell folks this is a God-sized project, so we're believing God [will] step in where our resources and abilities stop," Fink said.
Several factors are attracting faith-based filmmakers to Central Florida as their location of choice.
"We have A-list crew who don't get the chance to showcase their work very often," said Jaime Velez-Soto, director of "The Whisper Home."
As in California, you can film in Florida all year. And "there's all this acting talent, thanks to the theme parks," Nixon said.
