Paige Smith | Contributing Writer
At four-years-old, Colton Burpo was rushed into an emergency room. The doctors feared that he would not survive. After the surgery he recalled many details including his parents in separate rooms, his dad praying and his journey to heaven. During this journey, he recalls meeting his great-grandfather who had passed away 30 years prior to his birth, meeting his miscarried sister whom no one had told him about and sitting on Jesus’ lap.
Colton’s story was brought to life in the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book released in 2010. The book is adapting to the big screen in the new film, Heaven is for Real. Todd Burpo, a pastor of a small Wesleyan church in Imperial, Nebraska, is the author of the book and wrote it based on his son’s recollections of visiting heaven. The films debut on April 16, in time for Easter Weekend.
The Book
After his appendix burst, four-year- old Colton was rushed to the emergency room for surgery with doubtful doc- tors suspecting he would not survive. His parents, Todd and Sonja Burpo, made phone calls and asked friends, family and others to pray for their son. After 17 days in the hospital, they had a prayer meeting in the waiting room in the hospital and towards the end, people at the prayer meeting were asking what they could pray for.
“The doctor had told us ‘Oh, if he could even pass gas, that would show us things are starting to work,’” said Burpo in an interview with Michael Hyatt, former Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers. “Sonja said ‘well if you could pray that our son could pass gas.’”
Soon he was able to pass gas and his body started working again. The doctors and nurses were in disbelief when he started to get better. A nurse told Burpo that this recovery was a miracle.
Since the entire story is based on a miracle, it is easy to be skeptical about what Colton saw. According to Prof. Michael Bruner, miracles are not God’ s typical method for making believers out of people.
“This whole thing points to why, I believe, Jesus didn’t do miracles in unbelieving towns, ” Bruner said. “Because he knew that miracles won’t convince most people anyway , and it draws unwanted attention on the more sensationalist end of the faith, which Jesus was notoriously leery of.”
In the story, Burpo’ s father is a pastor of a small-town church, so the miracle of his son’s survival was acceptable to the religious community. However, claiming to have gone to heaven, Colton’ s story would cause more controversial reactions.
In the same interview with Hyatt, Burpo stated that it took four months after the first surgery to begin to grasp the significance of what his son had experienced with going to heaven. When Colton had brought up angels singing to him during his surgery to comfort him, it made his father questionable because they hadn’t talked about an- gels in Bible studies or as a family.
According to Burpo, the earthly revelations that Colton described while in surgery were things that his son couldn’t have made up. The stories and observations that Colton had began to capture Burpo’ s attention and thus began the journey of learning more of his son’ s story.
From Book to Hollywood
Joe Roth, one of the top producers in Hollywood, heard about the book before it came out in an interview he read with Burpo in The New York Times. What propelled him to see the book come to life was T odd’ s crisis of faith.
“The irony that he was a pastor who wasn’t really sure of his own faith, here is what he was doing every day for a living, [and] he wasn’t really quite sure that he believed it himself,” Roth said.
Todd had to decide on whether he should keep the story of his son’s vision to the family or if he should tell the locals about it; he chose the latter. This piece of the story appealed to Roth and became the reason he chose to make the film adaptation of Colton’s story and Burpo’ s book. Burpo could have lost his job and lost relationships with friends, but he decided to take the journey and believe in his child.
Another reason why this film came to the big screen was because according to Roth, “it poses a question every- body asks: What happens when you die?”
For Roth this is a question that intrigues everyone and deserves a more in-depth look and conversation.
However, there are worries from individuals on how this film will affect the church.
“The whole thing makes me nervous, really, and mainly because a lot of people will write it off as silly Hollywood nonsense and thus implicate the church in the process,” said Michael Bruner , assistant professor in the Department of Practical Theology .
In the past few months, many films released have been about religion or stories adapted from the Bible. In the U.S. alone, Noah grossed more than $72 million, God’s Not Dead grossed in excess of $33 million and Son of God grossed more than $59 million. While these films have all made an impact, it will be intriguing to see how biblically based films will make an impact and close the cycle with Heaven is for Real for the beginning of the year.
Hollywood and Religion
The part of the book that the parents saw skeptically but healing in their son’s trip to heaven was when he talked to his parents about having met his unborn sister, whom his mother had miscarried years before he and his sister were born.
“‘Yeah, she said she just can’t wait for you and Daddy to get to heaven.’” Burpo wrote in Heaven is for Real. “…From that moment on, the wound from one of the most painful episodes in our lives, losing a child we had wanted very much, began to heal.”
While this conversation helped make his parents believe, it can still be a difficult story to grasp.
Bruner did not read the book but is planning on seeing the film so he can have a conversation with his students and be able to comment intelligently on the film.
“ The fact that Colton knew about these things could also be an indication that he talked with his uncle about it, or overheard his parents at one point mention it, or heard his older sister say something to one of her friends, ” Bruner said. “Or maybe the kid has some kind of ESP (and I’m not being sarcastic). I think we know very little about the mind-to-mind, spirit-to-spirit connection. ”
While the cast and crew were filming the conversation scene about his miscarried sister people on set were concerned. Margo Martindale from the recent film August: Osage County , who plays a skeptical church board member in the film, was worried about this specific scene.
“It was a worry that it would be so controversial with that kind of faith, ” Martindale said, in an exclusive inter- view with Collide. “I don’t know what I want anyone to think but I believe that is between them and God. ”
Martindale’ s character , Nancy , is a traditionalist who had been raised in the church and lost a child. Through- out the film her character is on a journey to understand that God loves her and her son just as much as he loves T odd and Colton.
While the film may be tough for people to watch on the subject of near-death experiences and life after death, questions can still arise such as Martindale’s character’s own questions. “I’m theologically inclined to be suspicious. But look, God can do what God wants,” said Bruner. “So I’m not going to gainsay this kid’s experience. I just wish, for Colton’s sake mainly, they weren’t making a film out of it. ”
Cast and Crew
Randall Wallace, who wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film, Braveheart and is one of Holly- wood’ s most sought-after screenwriters, is the screenwriter and director of Heaven is for Real.
“The best stories…both capture the imagination and can direct us to- ward the future – and the kind of stories that require courage to tell. This is one of those stories, ” Wallace said.
Greg Kinnear, who plays Todd Burpo in the film adaptation of the book, was drawn into the project by the dilemma that the family faced with their son’ s story.
“What’ s interesting is that the events that take place ask Todd to go further than he ever anticipated going, to dig deeper than he had any expectation of doing, and I found that fascinating,” said Kinnear in the press release for the film.
Similar to Wallace’ s previous comment on having the courage to tell a story like this, Kinnear wants to show how grace is surrounding all of us in the present and have courage enough to notice it.
“Whatever your feelings on the afterlife, I think this film captures the beauty that is all around us through the eyes of this little boy and what he is seeing,” Kinnear said.
Kelly Reilly, who is best known for her role as Mary Morstan in Sherlock Holmes, plays Sonja Burpo, Colton’s mother , was immediately drawn to the story.
“I was intrigued by how such an extraordinary thing could happen to a very regular family, and then affect them so deeply and change lives on so many levels,” Reilly said.
Hope
The actors involved with this film don’t expect the journey for moviegoers to be easy. Martindale hopes that viewers will at least explore the possibility and not close their minds, but rather keep open to the story and the idea of heaven. Martindale discussed the film and her hopes for it.
Her three main hopes for viewers are simply stated: “[to understand] the possibility of No. 1, the life after death, and No. 2, how to get to that, No. 3, just the fact that we can have the idea of what happens in this world with the mystery of God. But for people to keep an open mind and have a real discus ion about this.”
Like many individuals who walk through their journey of finding God, the cast and crew also have doubts. The film is set to address this and that it’s normal to have doubts. Conversation is just a main part of what the film wants to percolate.
“I am a Christian, and I struggle with faith and have doubts and I believe that that happens with a lot of people. I think you don’t have to come down on yourself on that, ” Martindale said.
The film raises questions not just about heaven but also about who we are as people and the importance of not closing oneself off because of pride.
In the press release, DeVon Franklin, executive producer of the film, stated: “In the midst of all the block- busters and superhero films, I think this film will find a place with audiences because it taps into universal questions: ‘Who are we? What happens after we die? How do we deal with loss?’”
While a film, book and other media cannot answer these questions, the film raises the awareness of these questions and those involved are looking to bring hope to viewers.
“It’s really about the idea that we just might find out that life is greater than we have ever imagined, ” Wallace said. “And that we might not only find love, but we might also find how to give love – that, to me, is the essence of faith. ”