DeVon Franklin: Faith Is the Next Frontier in Entertainment

DeVon Franklin is an award-winning Film & TV producer, best-selling author, in-demand preacher and spiritual success coach.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Talking, and I would I would love if you answered
a little bit of Ruth and Boaz on this one. Yeah,
I was talking to Roland Martin a couple of days ago,
and you know, he was he was mentioning a story
and somebody talking to him about how his production or
black production might be inferior to you know, other sorts

(00:21):
of studios and news outlets and et cetera. And I
remember a day I'm sure you do also where faith
based programming didn't have the big budgets of Hollywood and
et cetera. And so I'm interested in your take on
what the future of faith based entertainment looks like and
why it's important.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah. You know, well, I think that the future of
faith based entertainment is as a genre. You know, It's
like when you look at horror or comedy or superhero
movies or dramas, those genres Hollywood is accustomed to. So
you'll see movies and TV series that will be horror,

(01:01):
or they'll be comedy, or they'll be drama, you know.
But right now, with faith, you know, you get a movie,
you know, a movie or two every year, and so
I think that there's gonna be much more faith content
as the audience shows up like they've showed up for
Ruth and Boaz, as they show up for other movies
that I've been associated with, you know, and even movies
that you know, I didn't produce, but I was in

(01:23):
like a Jesus revolution. Like as the audience continues to
show up, you know, you're going to see more faith
based content as you know, just baked into the business
of Hollywood. And you know, there's a friend of mine
does the House of David Show on Prime Video, which
is great, and so I think you're gonna see more.
You're gonna see a proliferation of content because I think

(01:44):
the audience continues to demand more. Hollywood is paying attention to,
you know, what the audience wants. And you know, in Hollywood,
there are very few growth sectors left, and I believe
that the faith sector is still a growth sector because
we haven't even really scratch the surface of what's possible
from a mainstream standpoint. And so my thought is that

(02:06):
it will continue to grow and it will continue to
find legitimacy as a viable genre that is capable of
handling all different types of programming options, whether it's an
unscripted show, whether it's a live event, whether it's a movie,
whether it's a TV series. You know, the faith space
I think is just beginning to scratch the surface of

(02:27):
what's possible.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
You just said that, you know, the audience has been
going to the movies, just not necessarily having the opportunity
to go to see these sorts of movies, but that's
an increasing category for us to be able to consume.
And I wonder your thoughts on how the industry looks
at well has historically looked at you know what, we're

(02:49):
not paying ass to that right now, or we'll give
it a little bit of a budget to be able
to produce these things. And what happens now that Ruth
and bowl Az says this story, well, okay, we're behind this,
Like what is happening that that this particular story and
the story other stories that you're telling are getting those
you know, opportunities to really make something happen.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, you know, I think it's you know one, I
think I had just a lot to do with me.
You know, I have specialized in this area for a
very long time. Uh you know, I mean I've been
in Hollywood for about thirty years and I have specialized
in this area in terms of you know, uplifting inspirational
content for about almost twenty and so you know, that

(03:37):
has given me a point of view that is trusted
and you know, my instinct on kind of the things
that I think will work, and I think the things
that I think will you know, be uplifting to an audience.
You know, because of the time that I put in
to being in Hollywood and staying the course and learning
and just growing in the business, you know, and now

(04:00):
have credibility. And so the success of Ruth and Boaz
continues to expand that credibility, which continues to I believe,
provide more opportunities for me to make more content like
this and bring you know, stories like this to the world.
And I think it also will open doors for other
filmmakers who are like minded.