Billy The Early Years
Updated Aug 29, 2008
BILLY: THE EARLY YEARS
ABOUT THE FILM
He is one of the most influential figures of 20th century Christianity
and has preached to an audience of over 2 billion people in person and through television and radio. Most of us know Billy Graham as the self-assured and charismatic preacher who counseled nine U.S. presidents and came to define modern evangelism. Now, with the release of Billy: The Early Years, we meet Graham as an earnest and promising young man at the crossroads of faith and doubt, ultimately facing a moment of decision that launched one of history's most powerful evangelistic careers.
Filmed in and around Nashville, Tennessee, Billy: The Early Years captures the look and feel of the Depression-era tent revival where Graham heeded the altar call, and follows him through the doubt, failure, resistance and resolution of the next decade. The film is directed by Robby Benson — an accomplished feature actor, director and writer, and the voice of “The Beast” in Disney's Beauty and the Beast - and is produced by Martin Shiel, Larry Mortorff and Bill McKay. John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, produced the music.
The cast includes well-known Hollywood names such as Oscar-winner Martin Landau (Mission: Impossible, Ed Wood) Jennifer O’Neill (Summer of 42) and Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman), as well as Stefanie Butler (CSI: NY), daughter of ex-Atlanta Brave and LA Dodger Brett Butler, Kristoffer Polaha (North Shore and Miss Guided), and country sensation Josh Turner (“Long Black Train”), playing singer George Beverly Shea.
One of the most daunting challenges the producers faced was selecting the actor who would play Graham from the ages of 17 to 30. The choice of Armie Hammer, great-grandson of noted industrialist and philanthropist Armand Hammer, was the result of months of painstaking effort. “We held a national talent search,” says Mortorff, “and spent three months from New York to San Francisco to L.A. to Nashville looking for the right actor.” “Then,” adds Benson, “Armie Hammer walked into the room and did probably one of the best auditions I had ever seen in my life. I just thought, ‘You’ve found your Billy Graham.’”
Hammer brought a great deal of preparation to bear on the iconic role. “I watched hours and hours of footage, watched tapes of his sermons and read his books, getting familiar with him as a person,” says Hammer. “But even more than that, there was a lot of spiritual work involved because it’s Billy Graham. I did a lot of Bible-reading and soul-searching so that I could really feel comfortable with myself portraying him on-screen.”
Producer Martin Shiel said; “Robby (Benson) had such a calming and nurturing influence on all of the actors that he drew out some truly outstanding performances. But the close bond between director and actor was most evident with Robby and Armie, you could really sense the mutual respect and trust between them and I think that garnered a wonderful performance from the young actor. It was a privilege to watch.”
The result is a movie that is both true-to-life and vibrantly alive. “What we tried to do,” says Benson, “was make a film that appeals to everyone on different levels — a film that’s not a lecture or a docudrama.” Billy: The Early Years is a full-bodied portrayal of a gifted young man in the springtime of life, facing his calling, dealing with rejection and failure as well as his own doubts and those of others, and meeting the woman who would share the road with him, and whose strength would often buttress his own. The film follows Graham from his days as a teenager on his father’s dairy farm through his brief attendance at Bob Jones University and his graduation from Wheaton College, to what Mortorff called “finding his place in the world.”
Perhaps most compellingly, Billy: The Early Years paints its portrait of Graham against the backdrop of his relationship with Charles Templeton, another gifted young preacher whose faith did not withstand the onslaught of modern scientific skepticism. He and Graham parted ways and in the film, Templeton comes to personify the rising tide of disbelief into which Graham launched his crusades. Much of the movie's power can be traced directly to its honest portrayal of Graham's struggle with the ideas represented in Templeton's eventual unbelief. "Graham questioned whether he should go back and be a dairy farmer and follow in his father's footsteps, instead of his Father in heaven," says McKay. "He was right on the cusp of shrinking back on his calling. He was wrestling with God. But he came to an absolutely concrete understanding from God to take the Bible by faith." As we all now know, that faith, so dramatically portrayed in the film by Armie Hammer, would go on to change the face of modern evangelism.
______________________________
Billy: The Early Years opens on more than 300 screens October 10th in select cities. For more information visit www.billytheearlyyears.com.
ABOUT THE FILM
He is one of the most influential figures of 20th century Christianity
and has preached to an audience of over 2 billion people in person and through television and radio. Most of us know Billy Graham as the self-assured and charismatic preacher who counseled nine U.S. presidents and came to define modern evangelism. Now, with the release of Billy: The Early Years, we meet Graham as an earnest and promising young man at the crossroads of faith and doubt, ultimately facing a moment of decision that launched one of history's most powerful evangelistic careers.
Filmed in and around Nashville, Tennessee, Billy: The Early Years captures the look and feel of the Depression-era tent revival where Graham heeded the altar call, and follows him through the doubt, failure, resistance and resolution of the next decade. The film is directed by Robby Benson — an accomplished feature actor, director and writer, and the voice of “The Beast” in Disney's Beauty and the Beast - and is produced by Martin Shiel, Larry Mortorff and Bill McKay. John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, produced the music.
The cast includes well-known Hollywood names such as Oscar-winner Martin Landau (Mission: Impossible, Ed Wood) Jennifer O’Neill (Summer of 42) and Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman), as well as Stefanie Butler (CSI: NY), daughter of ex-Atlanta Brave and LA Dodger Brett Butler, Kristoffer Polaha (North Shore and Miss Guided), and country sensation Josh Turner (“Long Black Train”), playing singer George Beverly Shea.
One of the most daunting challenges the producers faced was selecting the actor who would play Graham from the ages of 17 to 30. The choice of Armie Hammer, great-grandson of noted industrialist and philanthropist Armand Hammer, was the result of months of painstaking effort. “We held a national talent search,” says Mortorff, “and spent three months from New York to San Francisco to L.A. to Nashville looking for the right actor.” “Then,” adds Benson, “Armie Hammer walked into the room and did probably one of the best auditions I had ever seen in my life. I just thought, ‘You’ve found your Billy Graham.’”
Hammer brought a great deal of preparation to bear on the iconic role. “I watched hours and hours of footage, watched tapes of his sermons and read his books, getting familiar with him as a person,” says Hammer. “But even more than that, there was a lot of spiritual work involved because it’s Billy Graham. I did a lot of Bible-reading and soul-searching so that I could really feel comfortable with myself portraying him on-screen.”
Producer Martin Shiel said; “Robby (Benson) had such a calming and nurturing influence on all of the actors that he drew out some truly outstanding performances. But the close bond between director and actor was most evident with Robby and Armie, you could really sense the mutual respect and trust between them and I think that garnered a wonderful performance from the young actor. It was a privilege to watch.”
The result is a movie that is both true-to-life and vibrantly alive. “What we tried to do,” says Benson, “was make a film that appeals to everyone on different levels — a film that’s not a lecture or a docudrama.” Billy: The Early Years is a full-bodied portrayal of a gifted young man in the springtime of life, facing his calling, dealing with rejection and failure as well as his own doubts and those of others, and meeting the woman who would share the road with him, and whose strength would often buttress his own. The film follows Graham from his days as a teenager on his father’s dairy farm through his brief attendance at Bob Jones University and his graduation from Wheaton College, to what Mortorff called “finding his place in the world.”
Perhaps most compellingly, Billy: The Early Years paints its portrait of Graham against the backdrop of his relationship with Charles Templeton, another gifted young preacher whose faith did not withstand the onslaught of modern scientific skepticism. He and Graham parted ways and in the film, Templeton comes to personify the rising tide of disbelief into which Graham launched his crusades. Much of the movie's power can be traced directly to its honest portrayal of Graham's struggle with the ideas represented in Templeton's eventual unbelief. "Graham questioned whether he should go back and be a dairy farmer and follow in his father's footsteps, instead of his Father in heaven," says McKay. "He was right on the cusp of shrinking back on his calling. He was wrestling with God. But he came to an absolutely concrete understanding from God to take the Bible by faith." As we all now know, that faith, so dramatically portrayed in the film by Armie Hammer, would go on to change the face of modern evangelism.
______________________________
Billy: The Early Years opens on more than 300 screens October 10th in select cities. For more information visit www.billytheearlyyears.com.
Originally published August 29, 2008.
