Movie puts its faith, hopes in Winter Garden
Bailee Madison and Tanner Maguire rehearse a scene for the movie "Letters to God," being filmed in Winter Garden. (Ricardo Ramires Buxeda, Orlando Sentinel/ June 16, 2009)WINTER GARDEN — It's not Hollywood, and there are no big celebrities hanging out downtown, but an Orlando production company is in town shooting a movie that promises to touch people's hearts and spread the Gospel.
Orange County's fastest-growing city is the backdrop for a new faith-based movie, Letters to God, inspired by the true story of a boy with terminal cancer.
A Nashville construction worker, Pat Doughtie, is both the lead screenwriter and the father of Tyler, whose short life is the basis of the movie.
"He was the type of boy who loved others the way God wanted us to," his father said. "He never wanted anything for himself and was always thinking about others."
oughtie's son suffered from a fast-growing type of brain cancer, known as megaloblastoma, that was discovered as a BB-pellet-size spot near his brain stem and two weeks later was the size of a thumbnail.
He died in early 2005 at age 9 despite the best efforts of doctors at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
"When I was packing up his things, I found a notebook, and in there were, literally, letters to God," Doughtie said. "He never asked for anything for himself but was asking God to watch out for those who are left behind here on Earth."
Doughtie bought a book that explained the format of a screenplay, and in January 2007 he started writing. The story line involves a down-on-his-luck postal worker who starts reading letters to God written by a dying boy.
"That's a fictional character, but there's a lot of the real Tyler here," said Doughtie, who also serves as co-director. "The mailman thinks his life is on the skids, but he looks at the boy's family and sees how much faith they have, and he yearns for that."
Producer-director Dave Nixon, of the Orlando film company Dave Nixon Productions, was given a copy of the script about a year ago and was floored.
"I knew right away we had something here," Nixon said.
He originally wanted to film the movie in Nashville where the real story took place, but his budget was too small. "It's a $3 million movie," Nixon said.
While scouting for sites, Nixon drove through downtown Winter Garden, saw its churches and older homes off Plant Street and knew he had found his location.
" Florida has all these wonderful old houses and neighborhoods," he said. "You can shoot any scene here except for the mountains."
For weeks, movie lights have lined a section of North Lakeview Avenue. Power cords crisscross the street, and a camera trolley rolls along aluminum tracks.
It will take about 27 days of shooting to make the 90-minute movie, which stars Tanner Maguire as Tyler and Jeffrey S.S. Johnson as the postman. Nixon said he and his crew will be in town until mid-July.
Nixon was one of seven credited producers on the Sherwood Pictures production Fireproof, a faith-based movie that was made on the shoestring budget of $500,000 and went on to gross $35 million.He and his associates raised the money for the new film from like-minded Christian investors.
Nixon said he expects Letters to God to be released by March, though he doesn't yet have a major distribution deal.
On Tuesday, the film crew was scouting out scenes at First Baptist Church of Winter Garden, and filming is expected to start there today.
"We're just all having a blast," said the Rev. Tim Grosshans, senior pastor. "A number of our members are extras and gofers and just helping out in any way we can.
"I think this movie is appropriate for our times," he said. "It's about hope, and here's a family whose son was given basically a death sentence, and they had hope in their darkest moments. I think there's a growing hunger in our country for faith."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-movie-winter-garden-061909,0,1651247.story
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