May 15, 2025 • 25 mins
Episode 151 - Father and Son Film Collaboration
In this episode of the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast, host Jaclyn Whitt interviews novelist Dan Walsh in part two of their conversation. They discuss Dan's experiences with his books being adapted into movies, specifically focusing on a film project with his son Isaac. Dan shares the challenges and excitement of converting his novel 'The Unfinished Gift' into a film - set during World War II. He talks about the collaboration with Isaac and his team, the unique idea of a radio pitch for the film, and the plans for shooting and fundraising. They also explore the broader trend of storytelling in faith-based films and how believers can portray genuine, relatable experiences in crisis and everyday life.
Highlights Include:
- Welcome and Introduction
- Dan's Son and His Filmmaking Journey
- The Unfinished Gift: From Book to Movie
- Adapting the Script: Challenges and Successes
- Fundraising and Production Plans
- Involvement and Creative Control
- Legal Rights to Published Books
- Observations about Faith-Based Filmmaking
- How to Follow Dan Walsh
Bio:
Dan Walsh is a bestselling Christian fiction author, writing fulltime since 2010, with 29 novels on Amazon. His books have received over 65,000 reviews (4.7 Avg). Over 1.8 million copies are in print or downloaded. Two fan-favorites are now being made into faith-based films. His very first novel, a Christmas story set on the homefront during WW2, The Unfinished Gift, is in pre-production with his son's production team. The rights to another of his most popular books, The Reunion, have been bought by the producers of the hit movie, Reagan. The script is written, and it's currently in pre-production with them also.
Promo for Unfinished Gift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo3AhsClPv0
Editing by Michael Roth
FAFF Association Online Meetups: https://faffassociation.com/#faff-meetings
Screenwriters Retreat - Mexico: https://www.faffassociation.com/writers-retreat
Jaclyn's Book - In the Beginning, Middle and End: A Screenwriter’s Observations of LIfe, Character, and God: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9R7XS9V
VIP Producers Mentorship Program https://www.faffassociation.com/vip-producers-mentorship
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Faith andFamily Filmmakers podcast.
My name is Jaclyn, and todaywe're speaking with Dan Walsh.
This is part two of our interview,so if you didn't catch the
first one, please go back to theprevious episode and take a listen.
It's quite a, a crazy journey.
We're speaking with a novelistwho is now having two of his
books turned into movies.
We heard in the first episode hisjourney of the first one, but now
(00:25):
let's talk about the second one, which.
He led a little bit ofthe cat outta the bag.
It's a very different journey.
So tell us, Dan, how isthis a different journey?
What, novel is it and whereis this project going?
Well, I'm, I'm gonna assume you'veheard the first part, so I won't
try to keep making too many tie in.
But essentially what happened wasall the focus as far as the movie
(00:48):
side was on the reunion being made,but as I mentioned, it was stuck for
three or four years going nowhere.
It just seemed like it was dead.
But before that happened, myson, he, my son wants to be
making movies for his career.
Right now he's made two and the unfinishedgift would be his third feature film.
There's not enough.
Frequency for it to be his living.
(01:09):
So what he, he's also makingcommercials and various video
projects to, you know, pay the bills.
Well, his heart would be for the moviething to be you know, one after the other.
He is what he'd rather do.
So that's the hope, you know, for that.
Yeah, wouldn't we all.
yeah, he had made these two filmsand they were more like, he's a
believer, but he wasn't making.
The faith-based movies that would betypically the successful ones would not
(01:32):
be the kind of movies he would typicallybe thinking, this is what I wanna make.
And so he, there's a, a moviecame out some years ago called
Fargo, the Crime Drama, you know,and that's kind of more friends.
That's what they were want.
So the first two movies hemade were more like that.
And I, I was fine with that, youknow, obviously secretly in my heart,
I was like, gosh, I wish he would.
You know, consider doingstuff with my books.
(01:54):
But, you know, I'm proud of him and Ilo I love him and I didn't push it, but
what wound up ha he was very excited withthe whole, all the reunion and stuff.
Of course he was just loving it andall his friends were, they were like, I
was like a kind of like a rock star insome ways that, you know, I was having.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, what wound up happening was Ithink it was last year, not this past
Christmas, but the year before, theywere gonna work on their third film.
(02:15):
And through a se series ofcircumstances, it was all set to go.
And it was still in the tail endof Covid and something happened.
The production got shot downand they just had to all go home
after being all ready to go.
He was kind of like, you know, they,they were like, all of a sudden they
thought they were gonna have theircalendar, their dance car was all
full for the next several months, andnow they're so ran into the holidays.
(02:36):
So I just said to him as anidea, I said, Hey, Isaac.
I said, what do you thinkabout, uh, giving a copy?
I'll sign a copy of the unfinishedgift and just give it as a
gift it was like Thanksgiving.
Give it his gift to your friends.
And there's a couple of 'em, theseguys that were like, they had kind of
bonded together, like, like David'sfriends, where we're gonna make
our, they're all on the same ageand we wanna make movies together.
Do it in a new way with kind of a, like aChristian value on the set and all that.
(03:00):
so he sent them the, the booksand I, I don't know if he thought
anything would come of it, but theygot back with him kind of like the
other guys' dad, and they're like,Isaac, why are we not doing this?
Why are we not making a movie out of this?
This is so much betterthan what we're doing.
And I guess for him, he was like,their reaction affected him.
He is like, you know,'cause I'm his dad, right?
(03:21):
He, he loves me, he happy for me,but it didn't dawn on him that,
and so he kind of gave him a way,kind of look at it in a new way.
And in seeing it, he really fell in lovewith the idea of us working together and
with his friends to develop this thing.
And has.
And so he wound upwriting the script and he.
Knocked it outta par.
I worked with him for twomonths on adapting the script.
(03:43):
I learned quite a bit aboutadapting, working with Nick on
the, the, uh, reunion project.
And he had never adapted a script.
He'd only written scriptsfresh from ideas he had.
So it was, it was fun, you know,and we worked well together.
We didn't have a hard time at all.
By the end of it, when he went ahead,you know, wrote the script and I'm
reading, I'm like, how did you do that?
Because it's 250 page novel.
(04:05):
We're down to a hundredthhedge page script.
And I feel like I don't seehardly anything missing.
Wow, that's amazing.
Yeah.
'cause it does happen a lot.
Yeah.
And that's a concern when you'readapting, is how do you fit it in?
'cause the story impacted you.
But nobody, everybody forgets when theythink, oh, the movie's always better.
And they don't realize.
Yeah, that's because it's,if you're gonna make a book.
(04:27):
Every, and keep everything in it.
You're gonna have six to eight episodes.
Exactly.
There's so many details in the book.
There's so many pages, so many storylines.
There's just a lot more depthbecause you have more time.
If you're gonna cut thatdown to an hour and a half,
something's gotta give somewhere.
Right?
But so that, his goal, of course, was, andI think this is probably the difference,
(04:47):
his heart was to make me happy.
He wanted to make sure that Ifelt like he had succeeded in
capturing the best of the story.
And he did.
And so of course his friends, when theyread it, they were like, oh my gosh,
Isaac, we can make this, we can do this.
So a couple of 'em were, wereinvolved in some fundraising.
They've been able to get close to amillion now, raised enough for them to
(05:11):
feel confident that they're actuallystarting now to shop it with the agents
and actors they made a list for eachof the main roles of the actors and
actresses they wanted for those roles.
All the guys as a producer, andhe's got all the connections.
He lives out there in la so he'sgonna be the one shopping the, and
we, another thing a cool thing hashappened is one of the guys has
a connection with Kappa Studios.
(05:32):
I don't know if you know who KappaStudios are, but you know, I'm sure you've
heard the chosen, the series, the Chosen
yeah.
Yeah.
Kappa Studio is out in LA and they're,they've at this full-time for, they're
full-fledged production studio.
They're really a post-production.
they take movies and they put 'em,polish 'em, put 'em all together.
They've done all thepost-production work in the entire.
Series of the chosen all episodes and onquite a number of the faith-based movies.
(05:55):
They worked on, Reagan, theyworked on quite most of the, the
faith-based movies you've seen.
Kappa Studios has been involved in that.
And so one of the guys thecinematographer for my son.
Called this guy Paul Long, andhe said, Paul, he said, when
have I ever told you there?
Here's a story you have to read.
And Paul was like, well, youmean you have maybe never.
(06:17):
He says, okay, I'm gonna send youthis story and I want you to read it.
Promised me you will.
Well, anyways, Paul read theunfinished gift, got back with
him and it was like, oh my gosh.
This is like a classic.
Yeah.
What can we do to helpyou guys get this going?
And so they, at their own expensedecided to make a, because it's set in
the forties, it set on the home front inWorld War II during, during the forties.
(06:37):
This, this, uh, Christmas story.
It's about a little boy and youknow it's a reconciliation story.
His dad's a B 17 pilot.
He's being dropped off at agrandfather's house across town.
He's never met his grandfather'cause the grandfather and father
are talking since he was born.
His mom has died in a car accident.
The grandfather's gonna haveto watch him till the father
gets found and brought home.
And anyway, so he decides, he gets thisidea, Paul Oppa, to make a radio pitch.
(07:03):
Something have never done before, butthey actually got old time radio pitch.
They, they condensed the story intolike a 15 minute, sounds like, like
something, an old radio show with they,they got the actors, the voices, the sound
effects and turn it, it into, usuallyyou have like, what do you call it?
A, uh, pitch deck.
Just, you know, they made that also.
But they, he, he thoughtthis would be a good thing.
He created a YouTube video, youknow, it's a, basically a radio
(07:26):
pitch for this that make it all themore easy for, to, to get people to,
you know, visualize this project.
And then he gave a really crazy,small endorsement at the bottom of it.
So they're, they're,that's what's happening.
They're committed.
Their hope, obviously, is toget some of these actors that
will be on their top shelf list.
And if any of them do sign on, it willin inevitably make the raising of the
(07:47):
rest of the funds a whole lot easier.
But they also have a commitmentfrom the guys that even if they have
to make it for two or 3 million,they're gonna make it independently.
But one way or another,they're committed to making it.
Uh, the hope is thatsome point they get help.
It's a financing to be able, 'causeobviously if you have more FI
financing, you can do a lot more.
'cause it's, again, it's set inthe forties, so there's gonna
be a lot of extra expense thanwould be in a contemporary story.
(08:10):
Yeah, period.
Peace is more expensive.
Writing the book, you don'thave to think about any of that.
It's when it goes into production, thenyou're thinking about, okay, location.
You need to be able to have not onlya set that looks like it's from the
forties, but you need to be able to havethe, the clothing, so like costume and
vehicles and technology, like furniture.
(08:32):
There's so many things that you have tothink about that are not easy to find.
And that's the stuff, you know, that'swhy when, when I first talked to them,
I thought, yeah, it's gonna be a longshot because of that extra added expense.
But they're confident thatthey could probably make it
for the two to 3 million range.
And the actors were great actors.
They just may not be as well known.
(08:55):
Well, I had watched, uh, I, I've beengoing to all the faith-based movies now
the last couple years, just to be ableto, you know, get more acquainted with the
quality and what's being done and what's.
Very, very impressed when I saw Unsunghero because for one thing, I didn't
really recognize any of the actors.
Now, of course, I thinkit's Rebecca St. James.
It's partially her story and theband, the young guys at the, in
(09:16):
the movie, there's kids who wind upbeing the, what we call the king and
country who are, you know, very, verywell-known Christian music artists.
Well, this was their family story,and but in the making of the movie,
like all the actors, again, I, thesewere not whatever you call brand name.
A-list actors, but theyjust, they were just amazing.
I mean, the quality of the acting,the writing, I just was completely
(09:38):
captivated by the story at the end.
I thought I would not mind anybodybeing, bringing anybody to this story
that was the least bit open to the Lord.
There wouldn't be in any way feelinglike, you know, it was a hokey story.
It was just how could you not be affectedby such a well done story, and yeah.
And so it made me feel like,yeah, if even though we can't get.
Actors that peopleknow, recognize by name.
(09:59):
You know, if you get quality actorsand you've got a great story, you
could still make a great movie.
Even if you only have one or twoactors that have a more recognized.
Will face, that's also very helpful.
Uh, it's a really down to like the, theposter or, because it's marketing really.
Right?
And that, that's where they've done that.
They have, these are the peoplethat we, we pick that would help
(10:20):
finance the movie into another place.
I. Then there's the people thatwe would pick who could do a
great job but may not be able tohelp us so much with the funding.
But when we, we raise the funding,they'll do a wonderful job with the part.
Their hope right now is, to actuallymaybe shoot the interior scenes this
summer, and then they're picking out,they've already picked out locations,
(10:41):
not Philadelphia, where it's, thebook is set in Philadelphia, but.
Philadelphia is not conducive to makingfaith-based movies and taxes and whatever.
So they picked out somelocations that obviously we
need snow for a Christmas story.
So they're gonna set the interior scenesin the summer and then the snowy scenes,
uh, on location somewhere in the winter.
and one thing I can say to you isthat if, if people are interested,
(11:03):
I have a, um, a blog on my websiteI'm not very faithful with.
It used to be a big deal.
And now it's like I do put, wheneverthings, anything's happening, I'll
put something on the blog, but I'mnot like a weekly or monthly I.
But I've decided that when either oneof these productions starts to happen,
it goes outta pre and is actuallyinto production, I'm gonna start
either weekly or biweekly blog givingupdates behind the scenes updates to
(11:25):
help, you know, capture the processof both of these projects on the blog.
So, I. You know, people, you know,if they're, if they're curious
right now, my website is justmy name, dan walsh books.com.
Uh, I wouldn't say necessarily go onthere now, other than, unless you're
curious about my books, because there'snothing about the movies on there.
But at some point I would, I think theremight be a way to, you know, really
draw some interest in the behind thescenes stuff when the movies get made.
(11:49):
Yeah.
Yeah, that sounds interesting.
And so I'm curious, um, just to backup for a minute here, you were saying
that you were working with your son andthe other writer, the script writers.
How much involvement did youhave with the script writing?
I.
A lot.
Obviously I had the good fortune inboth cases where the script writers
were interested in getting the scriptas close to the book as possible.
(12:13):
'cause the books were award-winningbestsellers and they have a
fairly big audience that willsee it when it comes out.
And they obviously don't want all ofthese people that come opening weekend.
And then the thing they all say on.
Social media is justnothing like the book.
So there was a real interest in tryingto get things close to the book.
So we work pretty clo close together.
(12:34):
Obviously for me, the hardest partwas the way I write a lot of what
maybe would be helping my successas I write a lot and what the
characters are thinking and feeling.
It's not just the dialogueand the action and the scenes.
So that you can't put thaton screen very easily.
So a lot of it is trying to, how can wetake all of these, uh, scenes that are
(12:55):
really inside the character's heart andmind, and not turn that into something
that the, you know, you can see on screen.
So that was a lot of the challenges.
How can we convert, do a lot ofconverting And they did the writing.
I, don't make any impression here.
I was more like an advising themand then also they would, they
would get back with me and say.
How do you think about this?
I was like, great.
(13:16):
And of course my heart was, Iknow what the challenge was.
I wasn't like, Hey, youknow, you can't do that.
You're messing it up.
My heart was to be gracious 'causeI knew how challenging it was with
the project they had and once theyhad you know, sort of secured.
The sense that they nowknow what they need to do.
They didn't stay as involved with meand they just wrote it, and at the
end of the script they'd send me acopy, you know, uh, for my review.
(13:39):
Like they were sendingout the other people.
What do you think?
So I think that probably one of thechallenges, of course for, for faith-based
and people's books is they're notmaybe as aware when they start off how
much has to change and how they needto be, I guess you'd say, willing,
if they want it to become a movie.
They need to be willing tolet those changes happen and
(13:59):
not be like, that's my baby.
Yeah, exactly.
If it was being done in streaming forsix or eight episodes for one book, you
might not have to have that much cut.
Just have to reshape the story becausethere's enough time to play out
all the scenes But if you're goingfor a a 90, 120 minute movie, be
prepared for a whole lot of cutting.
Yeah, and even adjusting for the,the fact that you do have to find a
(14:24):
visual way to express the internalthoughts and feelings and all of that.
So there does need to be that.
Flexibility to shift aspects of thestory, whether it be bringing in
a new character or getting rid ofcharacters or combining characters.
Like there's just so many things that youhave to be flexible on because film is so
(14:45):
different from books when it comes to thataspect, even just how much things cost.
I mean, when you're writing thebook, it doesn't matter how many
characters you have, but when you'rewriting the film, it matters because.
That's how many actors you haveto find and bring in and pay.
so, so many things to think about.
My son's team.
They're really very careful.
(15:05):
Everything is what's a cost.
The other guys have have already mademovies that are tens of millions.
They still would care.
They're not thinking with the sameprecision that my son and his team are.
So yes.
And I imagine the overall majority offaith-based projects are more like my
son's rather than these very big projects.
(15:25):
that's one of the reasons too.
I can see why, you know, people wouldbe more motivated to take books that
are set contemporary because the cost
Yes.
have to come up with costumes and carsand all those other things, you know,
that go with a historical production.
And so do you have access to your audiencelike so, because I know that with authors
(15:47):
that have been able to sell a lot of.
Books, like copies, I mean, of, of a bookthat that book is attractive to a producer
because there's a built-in audience.
But I'm curious, with you beingan independent writer, do you have
access to your audience to tellthem, Hey, this is gonna be a movie?
Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say.
(16:08):
The reach thing is kind of con, oftentimesconfusing to me because it would, seem
to me like the amount of people thatI'm actually have access to might be
more like in the 15 to 20,000 range.
But I'm also aware that one of thelarger book promotion companies, that
promotes books not just Christianbooks, but all books novels called
BookBub, and I found out last yearwhen we were doing a group project of
(16:32):
six or seven authors together that.
They do this thing calledtarget advertising, where you
pick a bestselling author.
If you're a smaller author and youcan use this, a bigger author say, I
want, I want that readership that hehas to see my ads because my books
are like, if they like his books,they'll like, my books kind of a thing.
So you can actually target yourads to say all readers who love
(16:53):
books by Dan Walsh, for example.
But they, they came back andsaid, I had something like 250,000
reach in their organization asfar as when they, when people are.
How many people can they expectmight be interested in a book
and I'm thinking 200,000.
I'd love to be able to reach 200,000.
I'm more aware of, like I said, 20,000,but it does seem to be with social
(17:15):
media and of course when the timecomes, once I understand both projects,
once they actually sign actors, you'regonna start seeing articles like,
you know, all the movie publicationsand there'll be a lot more buzz.
I can tag off on as far as momentum andreaching people, but as far as actually
access that to me, you know, 20,000 orso is what I, I feel like I can connect
(17:37):
with in terms of getting a message out.
And other than that, it would be howeverthings go, friend tells a friend,
tells a friend, you know, type of thing.
Okay.
Curious about, uh, a legal issueor detail for your books that
you are turning into a movie?
Are they the ones that were, uh, publishedby a publisher or independent publishing?
(17:59):
were a traditional publisher, and Iand I, that was part of the thing.
I got the rights back.
Oh, okay.
I became an independent publisherin 2015, and at that time.
Only the books that I wrote brand new.
From that moment forward,I have any control Over all
of the books were locked up.
You could say the publisher.
Well, what happened was because theywere now going with other authors,
(18:21):
and I'm no longer in the corral, soto speak, my books with them, the
sales started to go down and down.
They're no longer in stores.
They're no longer promoting.
I'm invisible to them.
Meanwhile, my indie booksare selling really well.
as far as the other ones, theywere not saying well at all.
When the sales dropped below acertain threshold by contract, they
(18:42):
had to give the rights back to me.
That happened around 2018 just before thereunion thing happened, and when I got
the rights back to the those books now
Oh.
full control.
Those books to be made into moviesor whatever, I actually re-released
second editions of all those booksunder my own imprint and now have full,
(19:02):
complete control over all of those books.
Good timing.
Yeah.
I mean, at least I would've, I'msure my publisher would've, would
have wanted to work together.
If they had the rights,they wouldn't have said no.
They would've said, but I justwouldn't have had near as much of the
income because I'd be splitting it.
Well, turns out now all thatincome that would be from the
(19:23):
publishing side will go to me.
I won't have anybody I'll have to,uh, share with, except hopefully my
family and, and kids and grandkids.
But we'll see, you know, how that goes.
But.
I pray it's very lucrative.
And that it's a blessingfor everyone involved.
So tell us, where do you see Godmoving in your corner of the industry?
(19:43):
Because you're, you're kind of comingat it from a different perspective,
and so I'm curious to see where doyou see God moving in the world,
in the industry and storytelling?
I, I would say I've had somevery discussions just like this
with my son and his friends.
Because they've kind of decided nowthey wanna be, or even they wanna even
take one of my suspense books and turnit to eight episode Streamy project.
(20:05):
what they're saying, and I think thismight be something most of the, the
faith-based movies that are being madehave a very strong faith message in
them, which obviously people who arealready walking with the Lord would love.
People who are, who are not walkingwith the Lord, maybe not so much
unless they're being drawn to theLord in their own heart, whatever.
(20:25):
But what my son would say, and I thinkwe've talked about this, what they hope
to see, and I think this might be more ofa trend, there's much more of an appetite
or movies made by faith-based peoplethat are, instead of necessarily being
necessarily a strong Christian message inthe story, the story would be the thing.
The difference would be instead of havingcredible Christians populate the main
(20:48):
characters so that they're, like, forexample, my, my suspense novels, that
was exactly the, the whole goal of it.
I wanted to write, I love reading suspensenovels, but all the heroes and, and
characters and all the suspense books Iread are people are kind of profane and
kind of difficult and they're sleepingaround and they're not nice people.
So I thought, what if, what if somethingjust as exciting as these things happened?
(21:10):
But it was to a crediblebeliever going through it.
How would they react to all the thingsgoing through that suspense story?
And that's the premise of those, thosebooks, I read eight books that are
in, and that's what my son was like.
He, when he read that,his friends read that.
They thought, yes, nobody's doing this.
We wanna take a story that would becompletely captivating by itself.
And, and show credible believers goingthrough those things and reacting
(21:34):
the way believers who actuallyhave a walk with God would react.
And of course it's gonna be messy.
It's not always gonna be everything.
Everybody's gonna churchand singing songs.
there's gonna be, you know, all kinds ofsuspenseful scenes and all kinds of times
there's gonna be like just how people are.
And like the Psalms,you read David's life.
David's life was quite messy at times.
Other times he's singing thegreat high praises of God.
(21:54):
And most people believerscan relate to that.
I think they relate.
So that's what the, I, if I had tosay a trend that I would love to
at least personally see more of.
I, I wanna see these movies continueto be made that are being made.
But I would love to see a lot moreproductions take the risk of making
ones that are not so message centric.
And they're more about the whatdo credible believers look like
(22:17):
as they live their life throughespecially crisis and difficulties.
Yeah.
That's so good.
Yeah.
Having the characters be the oneto demonstrate an example character.
I love it.
that's
fantastic.
So tell our listenershow they can follow you.
Can they find you on social media?
I know you gave your, uh, website.
(22:38):
We'll have that in the,the show notes, that link.
But where else can our listeners find you?
Well, I'm on Facebook every day.
I just, my, I think baby boomers.
More on Facebook.
I also, I have, have a presenceon Instagram and even X, but I
would say the, the majority ofmy interactions are on Facebook.
So if people find me on Facebook, I haveboth the, the profile of this, the author
(23:01):
page where it's likes, and one that'sfriends on Facebook, but I'm on there all
the time if they wanna interact with me.
If you go to my website,there's a contact you.
Well, for one thing on my website,you can sign for my newsletter.
That's one.
You'll get to a chance to get one of mybooks for free, but the other real thing
is that you'll be part of the crowd.
You won't have to wonder, did Imiss it on Facebook or something?
(23:22):
I'm gonna be u utilizing thatwebsite much more often when
the movies start happening.
But there's also a place there youcan, it says contact, you could
just hit the contact button andthat goes right to my email address.
So if you send me a, a message, you wannareach me for some reason through there,
you know, I, I do answer all my emails.
I don't have a staff.
If I get too many emails, it takes me alittle longer to get back to 'em, but I
(23:43):
do answer all the emails that come my way.
So they can try that way either or, youknow, like I said, you could, you could
find me on these other social mediaplatforms, but I'm not on there as often.
Well, thank you.
It's been very interestingtalking with you.
I've enjoyed.
Learning your perspective andhearing about your journey,
and I've learned a few things.
I had a great time with you, and again,I'd love to do it again, and maybe we'll,
(24:03):
we'll, uh, if something big starts tohappen here and something starts to
move, you know, with these projects,one of these projects, we'll, we'll
make another time to get back togetherand give you, give you a little update.
Yeah, I'd love that.
Keep us posted.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you and God bless.
Welcome to the Faith andFamily Filmmakers podcast.
My name is Jaclyn, and todaywe're speaking with Dan Walsh.
This is part two of our interview,so if you didn't catch the
first one, please go back to theprevious episode and take a listen.
It's quite a, a crazy journey.
We're speaking with a novelistwho is now having two of his
books turned into movies.
We heard in the first episode hisjourney of the first one, but now
(00:25):
let's talk about the second one, which.
He led a little bit ofthe cat outta the bag.
It's a very different journey.
So tell us, Dan, how isthis a different journey?
What, novel is it and whereis this project going?
Well, I'm, I'm gonna assume you'veheard the first part, so I won't
try to keep making too many tie in.
But essentially what happened wasall the focus as far as the movie
(00:48):
side was on the reunion being made,but as I mentioned, it was stuck for
three or four years going nowhere.
It just seemed like it was dead.
But before that happened, myson, he, my son wants to be
making movies for his career.
Right now he's made two and the unfinishedgift would be his third feature film.
There's not enough.
Frequency for it to be his living.
(01:09):
So what he, he's also makingcommercials and various video
projects to, you know, pay the bills.
Well, his heart would be for the moviething to be you know, one after the other.
He is what he'd rather do.
So that's the hope, you know, for that.
Yeah, wouldn't we all.
yeah, he had made these two filmsand they were more like, he's a
believer, but he wasn't making.
The faith-based movies that would betypically the successful ones would not
(01:32):
be the kind of movies he would typicallybe thinking, this is what I wanna make.
And so he, there's a, a moviecame out some years ago called
Fargo, the Crime Drama, you know,and that's kind of more friends.
That's what they were want.
So the first two movies hemade were more like that.
And I, I was fine with that, youknow, obviously secretly in my heart,
I was like, gosh, I wish he would.
You know, consider doingstuff with my books.
(01:54):
But, you know, I'm proud of him and Ilo I love him and I didn't push it, but
what wound up ha he was very excited withthe whole, all the reunion and stuff.
Of course he was just loving it andall his friends were, they were like, I
was like a kind of like a rock star insome ways that, you know, I was having.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, what wound up happening was Ithink it was last year, not this past
Christmas, but the year before, theywere gonna work on their third film.
(02:15):
And through a se series ofcircumstances, it was all set to go.
And it was still in the tail endof Covid and something happened.
The production got shot downand they just had to all go home
after being all ready to go.
He was kind of like, you know, they,they were like, all of a sudden they
thought they were gonna have theircalendar, their dance car was all
full for the next several months, andnow they're so ran into the holidays.
(02:36):
So I just said to him as anidea, I said, Hey, Isaac.
I said, what do you thinkabout, uh, giving a copy?
I'll sign a copy of the unfinishedgift and just give it as a
gift it was like Thanksgiving.
Give it his gift to your friends.
And there's a couple of 'em, theseguys that were like, they had kind of
bonded together, like, like David'sfriends, where we're gonna make
our, they're all on the same ageand we wanna make movies together.
Do it in a new way with kind of a, like aChristian value on the set and all that.
(03:00):
so he sent them the, the booksand I, I don't know if he thought
anything would come of it, but theygot back with him kind of like the
other guys' dad, and they're like,Isaac, why are we not doing this?
Why are we not making a movie out of this?
This is so much betterthan what we're doing.
And I guess for him, he was like,their reaction affected him.
He is like, you know,'cause I'm his dad, right?
(03:21):
He, he loves me, he happy for me,but it didn't dawn on him that,
and so he kind of gave him a way,kind of look at it in a new way.
And in seeing it, he really fell in lovewith the idea of us working together and
with his friends to develop this thing.
And has.
And so he wound upwriting the script and he.
Knocked it outta par.
I worked with him for twomonths on adapting the script.
(03:43):
I learned quite a bit aboutadapting, working with Nick on
the, the, uh, reunion project.
And he had never adapted a script.
He'd only written scriptsfresh from ideas he had.
So it was, it was fun, you know,and we worked well together.
We didn't have a hard time at all.
By the end of it, when he went ahead,you know, wrote the script and I'm
reading, I'm like, how did you do that?
Because it's 250 page novel.
(04:05):
We're down to a hundredthhedge page script.
And I feel like I don't seehardly anything missing.
Wow, that's amazing.
Yeah.
'cause it does happen a lot.
Yeah.
And that's a concern when you'readapting, is how do you fit it in?
'cause the story impacted you.
But nobody, everybody forgets when theythink, oh, the movie's always better.
And they don't realize.
Yeah, that's because it's,if you're gonna make a book.
(04:27):
Every, and keep everything in it.
You're gonna have six to eight episodes.
Exactly.
There's so many details in the book.
There's so many pages, so many storylines.
There's just a lot more depthbecause you have more time.
If you're gonna cut thatdown to an hour and a half,
something's gotta give somewhere.
Right?
But so that, his goal, of course, was, andI think this is probably the difference,
(04:47):
his heart was to make me happy.
He wanted to make sure that Ifelt like he had succeeded in
capturing the best of the story.
And he did.
And so of course his friends, when theyread it, they were like, oh my gosh,
Isaac, we can make this, we can do this.
So a couple of 'em were, wereinvolved in some fundraising.
They've been able to get close to amillion now, raised enough for them to
(05:11):
feel confident that they're actuallystarting now to shop it with the agents
and actors they made a list for eachof the main roles of the actors and
actresses they wanted for those roles.
All the guys as a producer, andhe's got all the connections.
He lives out there in la so he'sgonna be the one shopping the, and
we, another thing a cool thing hashappened is one of the guys has
a connection with Kappa Studios.
(05:32):
I don't know if you know who KappaStudios are, but you know, I'm sure you've
heard the chosen, the series, the Chosen
yeah.
Yeah.
Kappa Studio is out in LA and they're,they've at this full-time for, they're
full-fledged production studio.
They're really a post-production.
they take movies and they put 'em,polish 'em, put 'em all together.
They've done all thepost-production work in the entire.
Series of the chosen all episodes and onquite a number of the faith-based movies.
(05:55):
They worked on, Reagan, theyworked on quite most of the, the
faith-based movies you've seen.
Kappa Studios has been involved in that.
And so one of the guys thecinematographer for my son.
Called this guy Paul Long, andhe said, Paul, he said, when
have I ever told you there?
Here's a story you have to read.
And Paul was like, well, youmean you have maybe never.
(06:17):
He says, okay, I'm gonna send youthis story and I want you to read it.
Promised me you will.
Well, anyways, Paul read theunfinished gift, got back with
him and it was like, oh my gosh.
This is like a classic.
Yeah.
What can we do to helpyou guys get this going?
And so they, at their own expensedecided to make a, because it's set in
the forties, it set on the home front inWorld War II during, during the forties.
(06:37):
This, this, uh, Christmas story.
It's about a little boy and youknow it's a reconciliation story.
His dad's a B 17 pilot.
He's being dropped off at agrandfather's house across town.
He's never met his grandfather'cause the grandfather and father
are talking since he was born.
His mom has died in a car accident.
The grandfather's gonna haveto watch him till the father
gets found and brought home.
And anyway, so he decides, he gets thisidea, Paul Oppa, to make a radio pitch.
(07:03):
Something have never done before, butthey actually got old time radio pitch.
They, they condensed the story intolike a 15 minute, sounds like, like
something, an old radio show with they,they got the actors, the voices, the sound
effects and turn it, it into, usuallyyou have like, what do you call it?
A, uh, pitch deck.
Just, you know, they made that also.
But they, he, he thoughtthis would be a good thing.
He created a YouTube video, youknow, it's a, basically a radio
(07:26):
pitch for this that make it all themore easy for, to, to get people to,
you know, visualize this project.
And then he gave a really crazy,small endorsement at the bottom of it.
So they're, they're,that's what's happening.
They're committed.
Their hope, obviously, is toget some of these actors that
will be on their top shelf list.
And if any of them do sign on, it willin inevitably make the raising of the
(07:47):
rest of the funds a whole lot easier.
But they also have a commitmentfrom the guys that even if they have
to make it for two or 3 million,they're gonna make it independently.
But one way or another,they're committed to making it.
Uh, the hope is thatsome point they get help.
It's a financing to be able, 'causeobviously if you have more FI
financing, you can do a lot more.
'cause it's, again, it's set inthe forties, so there's gonna
be a lot of extra expense thanwould be in a contemporary story.
(08:10):
Yeah, period.
Peace is more expensive.
Writing the book, you don'thave to think about any of that.
It's when it goes into production, thenyou're thinking about, okay, location.
You need to be able to have not onlya set that looks like it's from the
forties, but you need to be able to havethe, the clothing, so like costume and
vehicles and technology, like furniture.
(08:32):
There's so many things that you have tothink about that are not easy to find.
And that's the stuff, you know, that'swhy when, when I first talked to them,
I thought, yeah, it's gonna be a longshot because of that extra added expense.
But they're confident thatthey could probably make it
for the two to 3 million range.
And the actors were great actors.
They just may not be as well known.
(08:55):
Well, I had watched, uh, I, I've beengoing to all the faith-based movies now
the last couple years, just to be ableto, you know, get more acquainted with the
quality and what's being done and what's.
Very, very impressed when I saw Unsunghero because for one thing, I didn't
really recognize any of the actors.
Now, of course, I thinkit's Rebecca St. James.
It's partially her story and theband, the young guys at the, in
(09:16):
the movie, there's kids who wind upbeing the, what we call the king and
country who are, you know, very, verywell-known Christian music artists.
Well, this was their family story,and but in the making of the movie,
like all the actors, again, I, thesewere not whatever you call brand name.
A-list actors, but theyjust, they were just amazing.
I mean, the quality of the acting,the writing, I just was completely
(09:38):
captivated by the story at the end.
I thought I would not mind anybodybeing, bringing anybody to this story
that was the least bit open to the Lord.
There wouldn't be in any way feelinglike, you know, it was a hokey story.
It was just how could you not be affectedby such a well done story, and yeah.
And so it made me feel like,yeah, if even though we can't get.
Actors that peopleknow, recognize by name.
(09:59):
You know, if you get quality actorsand you've got a great story, you
could still make a great movie.
Even if you only have one or twoactors that have a more recognized.
Will face, that's also very helpful.
Uh, it's a really down to like the, theposter or, because it's marketing really.
Right?
And that, that's where they've done that.
They have, these are the peoplethat we, we pick that would help
(10:20):
finance the movie into another place.
I. Then there's the people thatwe would pick who could do a
great job but may not be able tohelp us so much with the funding.
But when we, we raise the funding,they'll do a wonderful job with the part.
Their hope right now is, to actuallymaybe shoot the interior scenes this
summer, and then they're picking out,they've already picked out locations,
(10:41):
not Philadelphia, where it's, thebook is set in Philadelphia, but.
Philadelphia is not conducive to makingfaith-based movies and taxes and whatever.
So they picked out somelocations that obviously we
need snow for a Christmas story.
So they're gonna set the interior scenesin the summer and then the snowy scenes,
uh, on location somewhere in the winter.
and one thing I can say to you isthat if, if people are interested,
(11:03):
I have a, um, a blog on my websiteI'm not very faithful with.
It used to be a big deal.
And now it's like I do put, wheneverthings, anything's happening, I'll
put something on the blog, but I'mnot like a weekly or monthly I.
But I've decided that when either oneof these productions starts to happen,
it goes outta pre and is actuallyinto production, I'm gonna start
either weekly or biweekly blog givingupdates behind the scenes updates to
(11:25):
help, you know, capture the processof both of these projects on the blog.
So, I. You know, people, you know,if they're, if they're curious
right now, my website is justmy name, dan walsh books.com.
Uh, I wouldn't say necessarily go onthere now, other than, unless you're
curious about my books, because there'snothing about the movies on there.
But at some point I would, I think theremight be a way to, you know, really
draw some interest in the behind thescenes stuff when the movies get made.
(11:49):
Yeah.
Yeah, that sounds interesting.
And so I'm curious, um, just to backup for a minute here, you were saying
that you were working with your son andthe other writer, the script writers.
How much involvement did youhave with the script writing?
I.
A lot.
Obviously I had the good fortune inboth cases where the script writers
were interested in getting the scriptas close to the book as possible.
(12:13):
'cause the books were award-winningbestsellers and they have a
fairly big audience that willsee it when it comes out.
And they obviously don't want all ofthese people that come opening weekend.
And then the thing they all say on.
Social media is justnothing like the book.
So there was a real interest in tryingto get things close to the book.
So we work pretty clo close together.
(12:34):
Obviously for me, the hardest partwas the way I write a lot of what
maybe would be helping my successas I write a lot and what the
characters are thinking and feeling.
It's not just the dialogueand the action and the scenes.
So that you can't put thaton screen very easily.
So a lot of it is trying to, how can wetake all of these, uh, scenes that are
(12:55):
really inside the character's heart andmind, and not turn that into something
that the, you know, you can see on screen.
So that was a lot of the challenges.
How can we convert, do a lot ofconverting And they did the writing.
I, don't make any impression here.
I was more like an advising themand then also they would, they
would get back with me and say.
How do you think about this?
I was like, great.
(13:16):
And of course my heart was, Iknow what the challenge was.
I wasn't like, Hey, youknow, you can't do that.
You're messing it up.
My heart was to be gracious 'causeI knew how challenging it was with
the project they had and once theyhad you know, sort of secured.
The sense that they nowknow what they need to do.
They didn't stay as involved with meand they just wrote it, and at the
end of the script they'd send me acopy, you know, uh, for my review.
(13:39):
Like they were sendingout the other people.
What do you think?
So I think that probably one of thechallenges, of course for, for faith-based
and people's books is they're notmaybe as aware when they start off how
much has to change and how they needto be, I guess you'd say, willing,
if they want it to become a movie.
They need to be willing tolet those changes happen and
(13:59):
not be like, that's my baby.
Yeah, exactly.
If it was being done in streaming forsix or eight episodes for one book, you
might not have to have that much cut.
Just have to reshape the story becausethere's enough time to play out
all the scenes But if you're goingfor a a 90, 120 minute movie, be
prepared for a whole lot of cutting.
Yeah, and even adjusting for the,the fact that you do have to find a
(14:24):
visual way to express the internalthoughts and feelings and all of that.
So there does need to be that.
Flexibility to shift aspects of thestory, whether it be bringing in
a new character or getting rid ofcharacters or combining characters.
Like there's just so many things that youhave to be flexible on because film is so
(14:45):
different from books when it comes to thataspect, even just how much things cost.
I mean, when you're writing thebook, it doesn't matter how many
characters you have, but when you'rewriting the film, it matters because.
That's how many actors you haveto find and bring in and pay.
so, so many things to think about.
My son's team.
They're really very careful.
(15:05):
Everything is what's a cost.
The other guys have have already mademovies that are tens of millions.
They still would care.
They're not thinking with the sameprecision that my son and his team are.
So yes.
And I imagine the overall majority offaith-based projects are more like my
son's rather than these very big projects.
(15:25):
that's one of the reasons too.
I can see why, you know, people wouldbe more motivated to take books that
are set contemporary because the cost
Yes.
have to come up with costumes and carsand all those other things, you know,
that go with a historical production.
And so do you have access to your audiencelike so, because I know that with authors
(15:47):
that have been able to sell a lot of.
Books, like copies, I mean, of, of a bookthat that book is attractive to a producer
because there's a built-in audience.
But I'm curious, with you beingan independent writer, do you have
access to your audience to tellthem, Hey, this is gonna be a movie?
Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say.
(16:08):
The reach thing is kind of con, oftentimesconfusing to me because it would, seem
to me like the amount of people thatI'm actually have access to might be
more like in the 15 to 20,000 range.
But I'm also aware that one of thelarger book promotion companies, that
promotes books not just Christianbooks, but all books novels called
BookBub, and I found out last yearwhen we were doing a group project of
(16:32):
six or seven authors together that.
They do this thing calledtarget advertising, where you
pick a bestselling author.
If you're a smaller author and youcan use this, a bigger author say, I
want, I want that readership that hehas to see my ads because my books
are like, if they like his books,they'll like, my books kind of a thing.
So you can actually target yourads to say all readers who love
(16:53):
books by Dan Walsh, for example.
But they, they came back andsaid, I had something like 250,000
reach in their organization asfar as when they, when people are.
How many people can they expectmight be interested in a book
and I'm thinking 200,000.
I'd love to be able to reach 200,000.
I'm more aware of, like I said, 20,000,but it does seem to be with social
(17:15):
media and of course when the timecomes, once I understand both projects,
once they actually sign actors, you'regonna start seeing articles like,
you know, all the movie publicationsand there'll be a lot more buzz.
I can tag off on as far as momentum andreaching people, but as far as actually
access that to me, you know, 20,000 orso is what I, I feel like I can connect
(17:37):
with in terms of getting a message out.
And other than that, it would be howeverthings go, friend tells a friend,
tells a friend, you know, type of thing.
Okay.
Curious about, uh, a legal issueor detail for your books that
you are turning into a movie?
Are they the ones that were, uh, publishedby a publisher or independent publishing?
(17:59):
were a traditional publisher, and Iand I, that was part of the thing.
I got the rights back.
Oh, okay.
I became an independent publisherin 2015, and at that time.
Only the books that I wrote brand new.
From that moment forward,I have any control Over all
of the books were locked up.
You could say the publisher.
Well, what happened was because theywere now going with other authors,
(18:21):
and I'm no longer in the corral, soto speak, my books with them, the
sales started to go down and down.
They're no longer in stores.
They're no longer promoting.
I'm invisible to them.
Meanwhile, my indie booksare selling really well.
as far as the other ones, theywere not saying well at all.
When the sales dropped below acertain threshold by contract, they
(18:42):
had to give the rights back to me.
That happened around 2018 just before thereunion thing happened, and when I got
the rights back to the those books now
Oh.
full control.
Those books to be made into moviesor whatever, I actually re-released
second editions of all those booksunder my own imprint and now have full,
(19:02):
complete control over all of those books.
Good timing.
Yeah.
I mean, at least I would've, I'msure my publisher would've, would
have wanted to work together.
If they had the rights,they wouldn't have said no.
They would've said, but I justwouldn't have had near as much of the
income because I'd be splitting it.
Well, turns out now all thatincome that would be from the
(19:23):
publishing side will go to me.
I won't have anybody I'll have to,uh, share with, except hopefully my
family and, and kids and grandkids.
But we'll see, you know, how that goes.
But.
I pray it's very lucrative.
And that it's a blessingfor everyone involved.
So tell us, where do you see Godmoving in your corner of the industry?
(19:43):
Because you're, you're kind of comingat it from a different perspective,
and so I'm curious to see where doyou see God moving in the world,
in the industry and storytelling?
I, I would say I've had somevery discussions just like this
with my son and his friends.
Because they've kind of decided nowthey wanna be, or even they wanna even
take one of my suspense books and turnit to eight episode Streamy project.
(20:05):
what they're saying, and I think thismight be something most of the, the
faith-based movies that are being madehave a very strong faith message in
them, which obviously people who arealready walking with the Lord would love.
People who are, who are not walkingwith the Lord, maybe not so much
unless they're being drawn to theLord in their own heart, whatever.
(20:25):
But what my son would say, and I thinkwe've talked about this, what they hope
to see, and I think this might be more ofa trend, there's much more of an appetite
or movies made by faith-based peoplethat are, instead of necessarily being
necessarily a strong Christian message inthe story, the story would be the thing.
The difference would be instead of havingcredible Christians populate the main
(20:48):
characters so that they're, like, forexample, my, my suspense novels, that
was exactly the, the whole goal of it.
I wanted to write, I love reading suspensenovels, but all the heroes and, and
characters and all the suspense books Iread are people are kind of profane and
kind of difficult and they're sleepingaround and they're not nice people.
So I thought, what if, what if somethingjust as exciting as these things happened?
(21:10):
But it was to a crediblebeliever going through it.
How would they react to all the thingsgoing through that suspense story?
And that's the premise of those, thosebooks, I read eight books that are
in, and that's what my son was like.
He, when he read that,his friends read that.
They thought, yes, nobody's doing this.
We wanna take a story that would becompletely captivating by itself.
And, and show credible believers goingthrough those things and reacting
(21:34):
the way believers who actuallyhave a walk with God would react.
And of course it's gonna be messy.
It's not always gonna be everything.
Everybody's gonna churchand singing songs.
there's gonna be, you know, all kinds ofsuspenseful scenes and all kinds of times
there's gonna be like just how people are.
And like the Psalms,you read David's life.
David's life was quite messy at times.
Other times he's singing thegreat high praises of God.
(21:54):
And most people believerscan relate to that.
I think they relate.
So that's what the, I, if I had tosay a trend that I would love to
at least personally see more of.
I, I wanna see these movies continueto be made that are being made.
But I would love to see a lot moreproductions take the risk of making
ones that are not so message centric.
And they're more about the whatdo credible believers look like
(22:17):
as they live their life throughespecially crisis and difficulties.
Yeah.
That's so good.
Yeah.
Having the characters be the oneto demonstrate an example character.
I love it.
that's
fantastic.
So tell our listenershow they can follow you.
Can they find you on social media?
I know you gave your, uh, website.
(22:38):
We'll have that in the,the show notes, that link.
But where else can our listeners find you?
Well, I'm on Facebook every day.
I just, my, I think baby boomers.
More on Facebook.
I also, I have, have a presenceon Instagram and even X, but I
would say the, the majority ofmy interactions are on Facebook.
So if people find me on Facebook, I haveboth the, the profile of this, the author
(23:01):
page where it's likes, and one that'sfriends on Facebook, but I'm on there all
the time if they wanna interact with me.
If you go to my website,there's a contact you.
Well, for one thing on my website,you can sign for my newsletter.
That's one.
You'll get to a chance to get one of mybooks for free, but the other real thing
is that you'll be part of the crowd.
You won't have to wonder, did Imiss it on Facebook or something?
(23:22):
I'm gonna be u utilizing thatwebsite much more often when
the movies start happening.
But there's also a place there youcan, it says contact, you could
just hit the contact button andthat goes right to my email address.
So if you send me a, a message, you wannareach me for some reason through there,
you know, I, I do answer all my emails.
I don't have a staff.
If I get too many emails, it takes me alittle longer to get back to 'em, but I
(23:43):
do answer all the emails that come my way.
So they can try that way either or, youknow, like I said, you could, you could
find me on these other social mediaplatforms, but I'm not on there as often.
Well, thank you.
It's been very interestingtalking with you.
I've enjoyed.
Learning your perspective andhearing about your journey,
and I've learned a few things.
I had a great time with you, and again,I'd love to do it again, and maybe we'll,
(24:03):
we'll, uh, if something big starts tohappen here and something starts to
move, you know, with these projects,one of these projects, we'll, we'll
make another time to get back togetherand give you, give you a little update.
Yeah, I'd love that.
Keep us posted.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you and God bless.
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