Brett Dalton stars in Jenkins’ first Harvest feature

Brett Dalton is Gavin Stone

Brett Dalton (“Agents of SHIELD”) has the title role in “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone,” director Dallas Jenkins’s first feature for Harvest Bible Chapel’s Vertical Church Films division.

The story is about a former child star, now in his thirties and washed up, who competes for the role of Jesus in an Easter play while serving 200 hours of community service at a local church for misdeeds.

“The film’s goal is to tell a story that shows the power of the church and community; it’s an entertaining family story,” says Jenkins, who moved from Los Angeles to Chicago in 2010 to start Vertical Church and produce faith-based films for Chicago-based, mega Harvest Bible Chapel.

Post is almost completed on the feature, except for editing and the music track and Jenkins expects to finish by November for national release in 2016. Dailies were provided by Periscope Post and Audio.

LA-based WWE Studios acquired worldwide rights to the film as it expands into new genres.  Budget was reportedly $2 million.

The screenplay is by Andrea Nasfell (“Moms’ Night Out”), who has written scripts for earlier Jenkins-directed shorts.  Co-starring with Dalton are Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, D.B. Sweeney, Neil Flynn and retired WWE star Shawn Michaels. 

“Resurrection” was filmed May and June in the Fox Valley, at Harvest’s Aurora film studio and at Harvest Bible Chapel in Elgin.

Executive producers are WWE Studios’ president Michael Luisi and Fred Adams, Harvest Bible Chapel executive business pastor. 

Jenkins adds that many more feature films are in early development. “It took a few years since moving from Los Angeles and relocating here to build an infrastructure.”

Jenkins is the son of Jerry Jenkins, a member of the Moody Bible Institute’s Board of Trustees and co-author of the “Left Behind” series of novels about the world’s “end times” and the second coming of Christ.

What inspired him about “Gavin Stone,” he says, “is I love telling the story of going into the church as an outsider and the idea that anyone can watch this film, church-goer or not, and still identify with the main character. I wanted to tell the story of a fish out of water.”