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For this film, how challenging was it to create a fictional story from what is essentially a book of essays?

Miller: Our first storyboarding session, which lasted a few days, I can only describe as magical. We kept coming up with ideas that were very entertaining to us. Who cares if the movie got made, we wanted to find out how the story ended. And that continued to happen every time we got together—just more and more magic. I mean, there would be times when we'd have to stop and I would have to go outside and be amazed at what just happened with these characters. The story really tells itself. I really don't feel very responsible for it. We were writing once at my buddy Jim's house in Nashville and I just remember stepping out on his deck and thinking, "Man, I can't believe that was what was happening all along in this story, and we never saw it." And yet somehow we put the pieces in play—it's like somehow our subconscious always knew, and then it was revealed to us just as it would be to a viewer. It was a very powerful experience.

Steve Taylor

Taylor: On a typical day, we'd work on a scene and talk about it, and then Don would say, "I've got an idea." He'd take the computer and we'd leave him alone for 40 minutes or so. Then he'd say "Okay, check this out," and he'd read it to us and we would just crack up. He's really funny, and he's good with dialogue. Then Ben and I would take it and go back to LA and would work it some more and turn it into what would be an actual screenplay. It just started taking shape over time.

So without giving too much away, what would you say is the basic story arc?

Taylor: It's about a 20-year-old from Houston who has basically grown up in church and is confused, disillusioned, and kind of at the place most college sophomores are. He decides to flee his upbringing and go to this school—Reed College—that he perceives as being the most opposite of where he's grown up in his life. I don't want to give away a lot, but essentially, the fictional "Don" character lives a lot of the experiences that Donald Miller writes and talks about in his book. The "Don" character is a lot different, but we thought that was the most interesting way to portray this experience.

Miller: It's a movie about coming out of the closet regarding who you are as a person. The character happens to be a Christian and is very ashamed of that, but he's able to come out of the closet by the end of it. It's really a film more about a human being than it is about Christianity. Christianity is really just the thing that this human being is dealing with.

Will the real Donald Miller have a cameo appearance?

Taylor: Yes! There's a character in his book called "Trendy Writer," and the content's been changed quite a bit, but he will play that part. He also originally had it in his rider that Zac Efron has to play the "Don Miller" character, but I'm not going to do that. Nobody breaks into song or anything in this movie.

There's also a book reading/debate scene that takes place in the world-famous Powell's Bookstore in downtown Portland, and I need Tim Keller to make a cameo in this movie. I've heard pretty much every sermon of his—we go to New York now just to hear him preach. So mention that we're looking for Tim Keller. He'll probably never do it, but a man can dream, right?

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