Christians in Cinema BLOG

Director - The Ultimate Gift, One Night with the King

Michael has a Hollywood career that spans more than 2 decades. His screen credits include writer, cameraman, director of photography, special effects cinematography, producer, and director on both television and feature film projects.

The only reason Michael agreed to this interview is because I assured him that every reader of this newsletter would purchase a copy of The Ultimate Gift on DVD (which is available this week). If you haven’t already ordered one, please do so immediately!

I met him in person at the ICVM catalyst conference in Atlanta, Georgia, where he presented a workshop on the Director’s role in a film from concept to marketing. As a very generous favor to a friend, Rick Garside, one of the event organizers, he made the round-trip to and from his home in less than 24 hours to participate in the conference.

Film school can’t guide you in the important areas like creativity, motivation and passion. Those come from within.

Michael likes to say that he has an “arranged” marriage. He met his future wife Susan in high school shortly after joining a little Baptist church in Wisconsin. She and her family had just moved over from England a few months earlier. Her mother was very hospitable, and even though they were the foreigners, Michael became a family member in no time. After high school they went their separate ways. Then, about 15 years later, Michael got a letter from Susan’s mother suggesting that since they had always been good friends, they should reconnect.

Michael and Susan have been very blessed to realize a lifelong dream of being a family and having their own children. They have adopted 3 children from Eastern Europe who are between the ages of 4 and 11. Michael calls them “Fantastic, vibrant, and full of life.” Very recently, Michael and Susan made Wisconsin their primary home. Professionally, he’s still based in Los Angeles, which is where he “goes to the office.” It’s just around the corner, then go another 2000 miles.

Angela: When did you become a Christian?

Michael: When I was in high school, the Jesus movement and “Jesus Freaks” were sweeping the country (in the early 70s). I had a girlfriend at the time who ran into one of these Jesus freaks on her family ski vacation, on a chairlift. She came back and when she walked in the door, I could actually see something physically about her that was radically and completely different. She wasn’t interested in me romantically any more. She was on fire and she wanted to tell me all about her experience with God.

I said, “If I do this, will we still be boyfriend and girlfriend?” She said, “No,” and I said, “Well, see you around.”

But then for a week after that I went through the mental anguish of thinking, “Well, if I become a Christian, I’m going to lose this, I’m going to lose that. I’m going to miss out on this, and my life is going to be less fulfilling. It’s not going to be satisfying. Am I willing to take the risk?” Literally, my conversion was just between God and me and happened about a week later.

I grew up in a family of 6 children in Wisconsin. We were raised in the Catholic faith and tradition, and when I had my born-again experience, it ratified and clarified everything I learned growing up. It brought great personal meaning to my life. So it didn’t cancel or negate my Catholic upbringing. It ratified it.

Angela: Did you know at that time that you wanted to be a filmmaker?

Michael: Yes. As early as junior high I got my hands on an 8-millimeter camera. My friends and I started making goofy, experimental films. Stop motion stuff. Different kinds of lighting and filters. I was really fascinated with the process of just capturing images and movement, not unlike the French film pioneers before the turn of the century. Guys like George Méliès, the Pathe brothers and others who were filming people coming out of a factory, or a kid eating spaghetti, a chimney falling down, or a train pulling into a station. They were just fascinated with this new art, the art of capturing life.

Later on in high school, there were a couple of teachers who really encouraged me. They gave me the option of either writing a term paper or making a film. So then I started making films that had stories to them, and you might say even early music videos, where I would take a song and illustrate it with images. I also did a short film where I played a priest and exorcised our possessed family Volkswagen. I gave it a French name, something like “Le Exorcism de la Bug.” The evil spirit was my brother’s beanbag chair, which I animated, and of course, in the end, it did me in. I then knew that I was going to film school, or at least thought that was the direction I should go.

I wound up going to a branch of the University of Wisconsin, and in a class one day a guy yelled at the teacher, “Why can’t we make films with sound on them!” The teacher was very frustrated by that antagonistic student, and said, “If you want to make movies with sound, go to UCLA. Otherwise, shut up!” I left class, went across the street to the counseling center and got the catalog for UCLA. I applied that day. When I filled out the forms there was one question in particular that said, “Why do you want to go to our film school?” I thought I’d put God to the test and put down that I wanted to make films that honor Jesus Christ and spread the gospel throughout the world.

I reasoned that if I got into UCLA after sending that kind of statement to them, it was going to be because of God and nothing else. Certainly not on my own merit. Eventually a lot of literature started coming from UCLA to my home address, about reserving a dorm room and other stuff. My mom saw this and asked me if I had applied. I held off for a while, not wanting to share my failure with anyone if I was rejected, but finally admitted to her that I had applied. She asked to see my application. I did make a copy of it. When she saw what I had written, she said (I remember her quote very vividly), “Well, this might get you into Oral Roberts, but not UCLA!”

On Easter Sunday weekend, the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning, the letter arrived from UCLA. It said, “Congratulations, you are 1 of 19 out-of-state students accepted into our program out of several thousand applicants.” To me that was confirmation that this was my direction. I now had a meaning and a purpose and a destiny, and I was going to, you know, “Go west, young man!”

Once at UCLA the best advice I got was from a teaching assistant, now an extremely successful producer. He said that in the film business you are your own pioneer, employee, best worker, whatever. When you graduate film school, you don’t go to a placement center and see a row of 3×5 cards with jobs for directors on them. You really are on your own. Film school can’t guide you in the important areas like creativity, motivation and passion. Those come from within.

Well I graduated summa cum laude with honors and all that. As I was leaving school, I wrote a letter to Billy Graham’s film studio, World Wide Pictures, to introduce myself. I said something like, “Here I am. I’m fresh out of film school, graduated at the top of my class, and I’m ready to make movies for you.” I was even flattered that the head guy actually called me, but then said, “Are you in a union? Do you have any experience?” I said no to both of those, and he told me in a very nice way to go jump in a lake.

So I partnered with a friend I’d met at film school. We wrote some scripts together, then I started writing on my own. Next thing you know, I’d written on 4 produced films. There are tens of thousands of scripts written every year, but for every film that’s actually made, it’s like a Galapagos turtle being born and making it to the water before it gets picked off by some predatory bird, or some other calamitous thing. So I had the very good fortune of achieving some early success as a writer. Of course, in those days, it didn’t pay very much, but it was enough to pay rent, keep the home fires burning, and prevented the need to ask the parents for money.

Then I partnered with a cameraman I’d met on one of those films and we started doing special effects cinematography for a lot of TV shows in the 80s. We achieved a great deal of success and everyone made a good deal of money. That sometimes seems to lend itself to things breaking up because as you make more money, people seem to want even more, a bigger piece of the pie. Then during a hiatus I went off to direct my first feature film. Then things started to rapidly collapse. That film I was directing ran out of money two weeks into shooting. It shut down, then my father passed away, and my business partnership imploded. You might say I finished my first career and was in a lull, wondering if I was going to start my second Hollywood career.

I believe that’s when God got my attention all over again. All this disaster in my life. I made a commitment that this time my faith was not going to be as much emotionally based, and I was really going to study this thing called the Bible. I told God, “I’m really going to rely on you, God, to explain yourself to me, and not on other people to explain you to me.” The first thing I heard from God was, “I want you to worship me. And I want you to worship me in a corporate environment.” So I said, “Ok, show me a church.”

Within a week someone pointed out Hollywood Presbyterian Church, right near my house in the Hills. Over time I became involved in not just regular church life, but soon I also played a role in feeding the homeless and then leadership in the entertainment ministries there, which are world-renowned. I got married there, and remained very involved for almost 15 years.

My faith had been defibrillated and revised, and suddenly, again, success started coming to me. I was just reading in my devotions this morning about spiritual gifts. They are different for each person, and they are for the good of everyone. During that period when my business vanished and sort of went away like a vapor, I ran into a couple in Hollywood, Ron and Judy Radachy, who run a drop-in center for teenage runaways and at risk kids. They needed a public-service commercial to show on TV and raise awareness. I made a few phone calls to people I used to work with, to a studio, and the next thing you know, I’m directing a commercial on Hollywood Boulevard.

A producer came down the street, scouting locations for another film, and saw me directing. A year or so later he called me and said he was making a film with a homeless theme, and he wanted to talk with me because I had experience with that subject. Turns out this producer was John Shepherd, working for World Wide Pictures, Billy Graham’s organization.

So it was 10 years after I first contacted them and they told me to take a leap. 10 years later, God re-directed them and re-directed me to meet. 10 years later, they hired me to direct a film about a homeless family called “Come the Morning,” for World Wide Pictures. So that initial vision God gave me was fulfilled.

I have seen God work at almost every speed imaginable. When I was in India directing One Night with the King, there were some crises there. When I would go to prayer either myself or with one of the producers, we found that our prayers were answered almost immediately. It was so lightning-fast. I asked Tommy Tenney (author of the novel on which the film is based) why sometimes in the United States it seems like answers to prayer are a long time coming, or seemingly aren’t answered at all?

He replied that God re-supplies his soldiers much like the military. He re-supplies those on the front lines of the battle almost immediately. At least in our case he did. That was very reassuring.

Speaking of timing, there’s not a single thing I’ve done in this business professionally where I was ready for the task until the exact moment. I was not ready even 6 months earlier. So even though we anxiously want to have fulfillment in everything right now – it’s part of our culture, our DNA, everything – I can honestly look back and see that when I do something and accomplish something, I was prepared for it; fearfully and wonderfully and often laboriously.

Angela: How did you learn about The Ultimate Gift and become involved in that production?

Michael: I had just finished One Night with the King in India. It was a film of epic proportions, a major undertaking. We finished editing, and I remembered that a few months prior, a producer had told me someone was making a film of this book and my name had come up as a possible director. I thought it might be nice to make this film – something on a smaller, perhaps more intimate scale – so I bought a copy of the book on Amazon.com.

Some time back I had been interviewed to direct another film by the same producers (Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius), and when I went to that interview, it seemed to be mostly a courtesy to me. I walked in and guys were closing their briefcases, checking their watches. One guy was fiddling with his plane tickets. The meeting was over before I even walked in the door. Turns out they’d already picked their director, the guy in just before me.

I decided to do my spiel anyway because I’d prepared for this meeting. I read the script, made a lot of notes. So I did my presentation even though guys were falling asleep and what have you. I was full of energy and said this is what I’d do, here are my ideas.

Apparently, and I heard this from several sources, even though they were pleased with their choice for Director, occasionally one or more of the guys from that ill-fated meeting would say, “You know, I liked Michael. He had some good ideas.” The lesson learned is that you never really know what job you’re interviewing for when you’re interviewing; it could be one, two or even three jobs out. At this conference in Atlanta where we met I heard someone say, “Learn to embrace failure.” I hate failure. Failure sucks! But failure played a very positive role here.

It also didn’t hurt that when these guys got ready to make a decision on Director for The Ultimate Gift, I had already read the book. I marked it up with ideas how I would do it, who I would want to play what role, etc. I went into the interview with all guns blazing. I wanted James Garner, but had no idea how much he might cost, or even if he was available. You go in and just reach for the stars.

I took a bit of a gamble because they already made several attempts at a script and I didn’t find the result that satisfying. I presented my vision of the book. The meeting ended. That was my pitch to them. My vision. I went back to my family and we went on vacation in the Wisconsin Dells. About a week later I got a call one afternoon that they wanted to talk again, so I spent the day in a cabin working on my ideas for the script. The next day, in a Wal-Mart of all places, I got the call on my cell phone. The producers were all on conference and wanted to hear my ideas. So I gave them my expanded vision for the movie on my cell phone in the middle of Wal-Mart, I think in the produce department.

To me being very up front with producers about what you want to do with their script or a book they have the rights to is a matter of integrity. I could have just gone in and said, “Yes, I’ll direct that for you. 30 days? Yeah, no problem, I can do that.” No, producers want to see you frothing at the mouth in demonstration of all you’d do to bring a film to life.

Angela: You mentioned that the book The Ultimate Gift is not a Christian book. Yet many critics are criticizing the film as if it were?

Michael: It is not a Christian book, per se. I think that what a lot of critics sort of began with was the fact that when the film was released in theaters last March it was under the Fos Faith banner, the faith and values division of Twentieth Century Fox. To many, and this got almost comical at times, that automatically meant it was a Christian film. The film certainly has many Christian values, or even Judeo-Christian values, and elements and ones that a Christian viewer would really appreciate and in that sense it is a Christian type of film, but someone with no knowledge of Christ or the Bible could be just as much entertained and challenged by the film. It is a film about happiness and personal responsibility and what you do with your life. About how you share your gifts with others.

Now, don’t get me going on Christian films, because the first thing I will say is that I feel that “Amistad” by Steven Spielberg was an absolutely phenomenal Christian film, beautifully and brilliantly done. The scene where the slaves in prison were looking at pictures in a Bible they cannot otherwise understand, the story of Jesus, his death and resurrection, present the gospel powerfully. I don’t think the critics began by labeling it as such, a Christian film. Of course, I’ll have to go back and look, but I’d be willing to bet, and I am a gambling man, that they didn’t label it as such.

Angela: Do you consider yourself a Christian Director?

Michael: I consider myself a motion picture director who happens to be Christian. Everyone, whether consciously or not, has a worldview. I embrace a Christian worldview. I hope that translates that I could direct just about anything that is family friendly or “values friendly,” whatever that means. But as a director I also firmly believe I could direct any number of action films or even, if it was not completely insane, a type of horror film.

Angela*: How does being a Christian influence the way you lead on the set?

Michael: I’ve always had a rule, even when I worked with the major studios (Fox, Sony, Columbia, 20th) that I don’t begin a day without prayer. In the past, when I was being paid with the studio’s money, I’ll gather anybody who wants to pray prior to the beginning of the day so it’s not on the studio’s clock. With the Ultimate Gift I changed this practice and gathered everyone sometime just before we did the first shot to pray. So it was on our dime. And I didn’t care who was on the set. Brian Dennehy said, “Well, this is a new one!” and James Garner went, “Well, in all my years in show business, this has never happened!” I don’t think they were being critical, either, I think they were just surprised. On some level I hope they appreciated it.

You know, when you’re praying for somebody’s benefit and welfare, and nobody has to bow or pray with you, it’s like something out of the Book of Daniel. Nobody is forcing them to bow to your God. I like to pray for safety on the set, inspiration in performances, and for all of those things that you want God to be a part of. I don’t think there’s anyone who minds being prayed for in that way.

Angela: You have written and directed and have done a combination of the two. Do you have a preference for creating your own scripts?

Michael: In America, culturally speaking, if my own ego were let loose, I would like to be the writer, producer, director, and maybe even star in the thing! But, as I was reading this morning, not only are we all gifted with unique gifts, but also we are part of the same body for the common good. That is a great description of a film crew. Everyone adds to a project: the producers, who had the first inkling, the writers who were involved before me, and others who will come along and continue to add to the project.

I have enjoyed both worlds; the environment where scripts have come to me virtually intact and all I’ve needed was to add my vision and creativity and then there have been times when I fashioned the script myself. I seem to get a little extra fulfillment, and more passion is stirred up inside me, when something comes to me and I can take a greater role in forming the ultimate content of it. I like being the director, which is captain of the ship, and to influence as many of the decisions that need to be made as possible. On other occasions, other people who hire me, I believe, want someone who can take control and overlay a vision on top of a literary work that was already someone’s vision to begin with. One that they love and don’t want to see changed, content or structurally speaking.

Angela: Who serves as a sounding board for you, or someone who can pray with you when you need to make decisions or seek direction?

Michael: My wife reads everything that I do. I write a Christmas letter every year. It has humor and passion and a spiritual message and so forth. I wrote the letter for this past year, and my wife’s comment was, “Michael, it’s not there.” I went back and completely re-vamped it and brought it back. Then she said, “Now we’re talking!” So she’s always my first reader.

John Shepherd (formerly associated with World Wide Pictures) has an incredible insight into story. He knows my personality and what type of story I like to tell, so he can recognize projects that are meant for me. Another gentleman I respect tremendously both personally and professionally is Coleman Luck. I deeply respect his judgment, wisdom and knowledge of the craft, as well as his worldview. I consider him to be of tremendous influence in my life. Recently I came in contact with David McFadzean and greatly respect his advice.

I would also be remiss if I did not add that I pray daily, by phone, with Gene Wohlberg, a Jewish Christian (and fully both!) I met at church. So a lot of big decisions and advice and wisdom come out of that. Wherever I am, doesn’t matter; India, Wisconsin, LA, Hawaii and wherever he is; LA, Monterrey, Hawaii, post op at Cedars, wherever, we have prayed together daily for at least 5 years. Everyone needs a Gene in his or her life.

There are others who I am forgetting and now they’ll think I’m an ingrate.

Angela: Are there any future projects you can tell us about?

Michael: Absolutely. I read a book about 4 years ago that I fell in love with, but the agent told me someone else had optioned it. It’s called “Eli,” written by Bill Myers. The premise of the book is what if Jesus hadn’t come 2000 years ago, and instead came today, for the first time? (I have been interviewed to direct other “Jesus comes back now” scripts, but in those, one in particular, Jesus didn’t seem at all like the Jesus of the Bible.) Well, Mr. Myers changed all that. His book is incredible. By placing Jesus in our culture so much nuance comes to light. To me it seemed like a fantastic chance to do a fresh re-telling of the gospel. It makes Jesus so richly relevant. So when the agent said the rights were optioned, I was extremely disappointed. I thought it was a natural fit and something I could get passionate about.

So I was praying about what my next project should be, and “Eli” came to mind. I figured it that by now it had already been made, and I just missed it when I was on location in India or North Carolina or wherever. So I shot Bill an e-mail asking him about it. Mind you, this is about 3-4 years after I’d first read it.

He e-mailed me back and told me the option had expired just three weeks earlier, and he’d been praying every day since then about who should make the film. Of all the books he’s written, he felt that was one of his most important and that it should be made into a film. Words are not adequate to describe how thrilled I was that he gave me the rights for an option period, what kind of confirmation that was. Now, of course, I need to make it.

I also have optioned the rights to another published novel, “Death Watch”, by Jack Cavanaugh and Jerry Kuiper, that is somewhat apocalyptic and spiritual but is nevertheless a “smaller” picture. By that I mean I might buy a couple of HD cameras, do it on my own and have some real fun with it. So if UPS drops off a few million at my door, no questions asked, I’ll go make that.

I like being the director, which is captain of the ship, and to influence as many of the decisions that need to be made as possible.

Angela: Is there a Scripture verse that’s been an anchor for you as a believer?

Michael: Yes. Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD. And whose confidence is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream. And will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.”

Clearly another one would be Romans 8:28, “For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.”

Angela: What are some of you family’s favorite meals or restaurants?

Michael: Our biggest find in Wisconsin so far has to be Cy’s Asian Bistro in Neenah. Great Thai food. Cy and his wife Vong and their incredible staff love us and we love them. For breakfast it has to be Sassy Sal’s. Sal is a great cook, a woman of faith, and she’s the only human being my kids seem to obey. I guess she didn’t get the name Sassy for nothing. Some people from Illinois came in the other week and some guy made a remark about this not being “your average greasy spoon” and Sal took off and hit the guy in the head. His wife gave her permission to do it again and Sal did! Sal has now seen most of my films and even went so far as to get a DVD player to see the most recent ones. When I am writing a script and walk in the door Sal greets me, wooden spoon in hand, and asks, “Have you finished yet?”

One of the biggest sacrifices Susan and I made when moving to Wisconsin can be summed up in one word: sushi, or lack thereof. We love sushi and ate it in LA at least once a week. Our oldest daughter Anastasia, well, we like to pit her against master sushi chefs to see if there is any form of sushi she will not eat. They have yet to succeed.

One other drawback is that some cities in Wisconsin still allow smoking. Call us Californians in this regard, but we can’t even enter a restaurant that allows smoking in any part of the room.

On the other hand, there’s no place but Wisconsin on a Friday night where everyone leaves their home and goes out to eat fried fish. Battered, deep fat fried and then dipped in butter. Kind of the opposite of sushi.

Then there are the meals we have at home. I think my favorite is Saturday morning pancakes.

Angela: Favorite vacation spots?

Michael: When we lived in LA where we would vacation wouldn’t even be up for discussion. We usually went to Wisconsin. Now that we have that as home base we plan to enjoy some of the other spots that are dear to our hearts, mainly Maui and Telluride. This fall Susan and I are going for our combined 10th and 11th year anniversaries to the Napa Valley.

Angela: Favorite movies?

Michael: My favorite movies tend to be somewhat obscure films that made a big impression on me when I was in school or during other formative stages. I’ll give you a few titles, but there are a hundred. “Toute Une Vie (And Now My Love)” by Claude Lelouch, “8 1/2” by Fellini, “Once upon a Time in the West” by Sergio Leone, “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Dr. Zhivago” both by David Lean. “The Seventh Seal” by Bergman, “The Wild Bunch,” “Vanishing Point,” “Run Lola Run,” “Seven Beauties” by Lina Wertmuller, “Blade Runner,” “Witness,” and “Day for Night” by Truffaut.

Of course there are some very popular films that I enjoy such as Ben Hur and almost any film by Frank Capra. “Being There” and/or any film by Hal Ashby. If you can find it see “August 32nd on Earth” and if you had only two films to see before you died see The Ultimate Gift and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc.”

Angela: What books are you currently reading that you’re not turning into a screenplay?

Michael: I tend to read for pleasure and usually find myself reading a few books at once. I am wading through “Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood” (Todd McCarthy) biography right now as he was not only a great director and a master of pacing but he was also born and raised right here where we now live, in Neenah, Wisconsin. So in some respects you might say my life is a reverse Howard Hawks. Also, the guy who yelled out in film class “Why can’t we make films with sound on them?” is buried under Howard Hawks family gravestone. But that’s another long, long story.

Recently I read through or intend to read many of the biographies of our early presidents as well as Benjamin Franklin. My trips to DC over the past decade to film stories for Charles Colson ignited my interest in early American history. My wife just gave me the Reagan Diaries as well. I am also shamelessly going through every rock biography I can get my hands on. I just finished in rapid order “Old Gods Almost Dead” (Rolling Stones), “Hammer of the Gods” (Led Zeppelin) and the latest Beatles biography by Bob Spitz. I’ve given away maybe five or six copies of that as gifts.

I’m also enjoying “Piano” by James Barron about the making of a Steinway Concert Grand. My wife would like to buy one someday and we just might, when my son learns you play one with your fingers, not your feet.

Then I’m looking forward to “They Marched into Daylight” by David Maraniss about Viet Nam and the soldiers there and also the protests in Madison concurrent to that war. I filmed in Madison around the time of some of those events, missing the major riots but catching some of the aftermath. I also want to do a project someday about that place and time. Never in recent history has there ever been an era (late 60’s, early 70’s) where there were so many ideas and cultures clashing and mixing and fighting and being reborn. Hippies, radicals, squares, Jesus Freaks. The Summer of Love. They all collided. Call it semi-autobiographical.

Angela: What about favorite hobbies?

Michael: I love to golf a lot, but feel guilty doing it when my wife is working. But if I just come off a big project or finish something major, like this interview, well, that deserves a good game of golf, doesn’t it? I am also very passionate about wine, collecting wines, and we have somewhat of a developing cellar in our basement. I found that my basement is virtually the same temperature year round and I plan on taking advantage of that. I also love skiing, walking our dogs and since moving to Wisconsin find that I really, really like winter. There is an incredible stillness, quietness and solitude to winter. Also, the light is fantastic. I was hooked on filmmaking when Dr. Zhivago went back to that country house to find it a crystalline palace.