Here’s today’s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.

A family’s story of faith. From The Hollywood Reporter: Greg Kinnear is in negotiations to star in Heaven Is for Real, Sony Pictures’ adaptation of the best-selling true-life book by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent…Burpo is the small-town pastor whose 4-year-old son purportedly died during surgery and went to heaven. The boy awoke with wild descriptions of where he had been, but neither the boy’s father nor friends and family believed him until he began to reveal details that he simply could not have known. The inspirational book became a sensation when it was released in 2010, hitting the New York Times best-seller charts in within three weeks. By April 2012, more than a million copies has been sold. Sony picked up the rights in May 2011.
Comment:  The HR piece also notes that the movie is being produced by Joe Roth (fresh off his $80 million opening of  Oz the Great and Powerful) and pastor/author/filmmaker T.D. Jakes (who is also a board member of BN Media, the parent company of Beliefnet). Randall Wallace who helmed Secretariat is directing.  Kinnear, of course, is a very successful actor who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in As Good as It  Gets and is currently set to star in the Fox’s House-like lawyer pilot Rake. Will heavenly box office result from their collaboration? Heaven only knows.

The boy’s name, BTW, is Colton Burpo. Back in May of 2001, he and his parents related their inspiring story to Matt Lauer on  Today.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11