A Tough Audience
Michael Landon Jr., director of The Last Sin Eater and four Love Comes Softly films, discusses the challenges of making movies for Christians—who can be a fickle audience.
by Mark Moring | posted 5/15/2007
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Michael Landon Jr. is a chip off the old block in more ways than one.
Like his dad—star of Little House on the Prairie—the younger Landon, a director, likes telling stories from the old days, particularly the 19th century, and particularly about frontier life. Look no further than his four films in the Love Comes Softly series, based on the popular historical novels by Christian author Janette Oke.
The movies have been hugely popular on The Hallmark Channel, where they all originally aired, and have been among the best-selling DVDs in the Christian market.
Unabashed chick flicks, the Love Comes Softly movies are most popular with women—yet another way Landon is like his father, who died of cancer in 1991. Women adored the elder Landon, and they love the younger too—though Junior's work is all from behind the camera, while his father's work was mostly in front of it.
Hallmark is committed to all eight films in the series (the fifth, Love's Unending Legacy, will air in June), but Landon bowed out after No. 4, Love's Abiding Joy, because of creative differences with the production company.
Landon on the set of 'The Last Sin Eater'
So Landon broke away and, with an old friend, formed his own production company, Believe Pictures. Their first film, The Last Sin Eater, made with FoxFaith, had a brief theatrical run in February, and releases to DVD today.
We talked to Landon, 42, about the Love series, about The Last Sin Eater and his upcoming film, Saving Sarah, and about the whole notion of what it means to make films for a "Christian audience," which Landon says can be quite a challenge.
Why did you quit making the Love Comes Softly movies?
Michael Landon Jr.: The company behind those movies—Larry Levinson Productions, who makes all of Hallmark Channel's films—is very controlling. It was really only the first movie, Love Comes Softly, where I had a certain amount of autonomy. After that, they tightened up the reigns and became more and more controlling—which is kind of strange, because the first one was the highest rated movie in the history of the channel.
So, you're thinking, "Don't mess with a good thing."
Landon: Yeah. But suddenly they started becoming much more hands-on and forcing certain casting decisions on me. You don't get to pick your DP [director of photography]; you don't get to pick your editor. It's not an easy place creatively to work.
Love Comes Softly was the No. 1 selling DVD in Christian bookstores last year, even outselling Narnia. And Love's Enduring Promise and Love's Long Journey were No. 3 and 4.
Did that sales success mean anything to you financially?
Landon: No. It was a for-hire job, and [the pay] is very paltry over there … even though it has done quite well for Larry Levinson Productions.
Now you've moved on to TheLast Sin Eater and other future projects with Fox. How did that come about?
Landon: When Fox picked up Love Comes Softly [for home video], they weren't really expecting much out of it. But when sales increased, Fox came to me and said, "We want to be in business with you." I called someone I had known for many years, Brian Bird, and we formed a company, Believe Pictures, and The Last Sin Eater became our first film for Fox. And we're finishing up our next one, Saving Sarah, based upon a Beverly Lewis novel. That's out in August.
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