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What The Purpose-Driven Life project? Are you making it into a movie?

Winter: Rupert Murdoch [of 20th Century Fox] comes to us and says, "Let's make it. I'll fund it."

How are you going to turn this non-fiction, inspirational volume of life principles into a movie?

Winter: You've got to create a story. Think Grand Canyon—that's probably a good place to start. Find disparate stories that converge and illustrate [one or two of the] principles, find good characters.

That's why I'm a fan of doing a small movie, getting a couple million dollars, and get out there and try an experiment, put our toe in the water with this. If [the first Purpose-Driven movie] works, well, you've got 39 films to make, or 12 more principles, or however many you want.

There are some who are worried about getting a big theatrical release. But let's write the script first, and let's see what that tells us about how big or how small it will be.

You're involved in a variety of projects. Most are action-oriented, but even those seem "purpose-driven," if you will—grounded in important questions and ideas. What are some of the films that have inspired you or broadened your own personal vision?

Winter: I thought American Beauty was a great movie in the way that it asked questions, the multi-layered effect. Christians rejected the film without even knowing what it was. But I love how it digs down into that story.

Rob Johnston, in his new book Useless Beauty, helped me a lot with his analysis. He looks at how the questions asked by the writer of American Beauty, Alan Ball, are similar the questions of Ecclesiastes. What is beauty? Is it that odorless beautiful rose, or is it that plastic bag? What Rob proposes is the notion of common grace: As opposed to what we thought before, where we read the Bible and then understand culture through that grid, what if you reverse it? What if by watching American Beauty, you gain deeper insight into the Book of Ecclesiastes?

Isn't that similar to the nature of Jesus' parables? They make us look at scripture, and at our lives, in new, sometimes bewildering ways.

Winter: Yes, and they're never about God on the surface.

When movies are about God on the surface, when they're "Christian" art and entertainment, they rarely seem to captivate an audience. Why?

Winter: [Christians] want to dot every "i" and cross every "t" and make sure it's uber-clear what's happened by the end of the story. We've lost the ability to create mystery and wonder.

Movies are not good at giving answers. Movies are great at asking questions. Movies that do that are lasting.

I love the movie Gladiator. It's inspiring. It's a wonderful journey of someone who is sort of an also-ran in the process, but who aspires to greatness and asks the huge questions. It seems to be about "Win the crowd and win your freedom." But I think that movie is truly about love, and not just about choosing. Even when Commodus smothers his dad, what is it that he says? "If you would have loved me, I would have butchered the whole world." He wants love as well—in a different sense than Maximus, but it is about love at some level.

When you talk about the need for Christians in Hollywood, are you talking about screenwriters, primarily?

Winter: In writing and directing, we just don't have the material. We don't have the talent. It takes time to develop and cultivate material and get it out there. Some of the movies we've been able to do at Fox are due to having some Christians in that organization who stir up that stuff inside the organization. We need Christians inside the studio.

We need more Christian agents who are out there developing and finding material, cultivating it, [people] with moderate integrity. We need good examples in all areas of business.

The people at Act One, like Barbara Nicolosi, are doing that. Scott Derrickson has written for Jerry Bruckheimer, Wim Wenders, and Martin Scorsese. Now he's written and directed his own piece, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, with Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson, and it's good. He's one of the guys who is the epitome of up-and-coming directors. We need more like him.

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