Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 04/05/23

Real-life family survival thriller flies into theater today and lands on Amazon Prime Video Friday. I spoke with On a Wing and a Prayer producer Roma Downey and Doug White, the guy at the center of the miraculous story theatunfolded aboard a small twin-engine Beechcraft Super King Air 200 on Easter Sunday, 2009.

JWK: So, Doug, how about I start with you. What do you remember about that day?

Doug White: I asked if I could sit up front because I like to look out the window and listen in on the radio and (Joe Cabuk, the pilot) said “Yeah” and we took off. Everything started out routine. We were climbing up through some clouds because it was real bumpy. I remember him saying “If we get up on top of these clouds it’ll smooth out.” So, 45-minutes later after he passed and we went out over the Gulf of Mexico and came back I (had) to descend back down because I can see an airport out there – ten to fifteen miles. It’s a little strip from far away but when I came back down there were no clouds. If I had been back in the clouds it would have been over because you’ve got to be an instrument-rated pilot to fly in the clouds and I was, you know, 25 hours on a Cessna 172. The clouds were not there! We’re on final approach at the beach in Florida in the middle of the afternoon in April and there’s no wind! No wind! Because I’d have been all over the place! These are things I remember.

There’s a quick-thinking controller in Fort Myers named Dan Favio. He hears we’re coming. He remembers he’s got a good friend (named Kari Sorenson) in Danbury, Connecticut, 12 or 1500 hundred miles away, who has a lot of King Air experience. He gets on his cell phone and calls him. The guy’s been riding around town in his little Model A or Model T, one of those antique cars he’s got. He was in town. He wasn’t even home but he had to swing back to the house for something and that’s when Dan calls him. He runs downstairs and he’s got a King Air cockpit poster on his wall! He sits down and he’s looking at what I’m looking at. He’s talking on the cell phone to Dan. Dan’s whispering in the ear of the controller who’s talking to me. The controller tells me this. So, I got a question. I ask the controller and he leans past Dan. Dan gets on the phone and talks to Cary and vice versa. We did that for 20 or 25 minutes.

JWK: I don’t want to take away from the suspense of the movie but, bottom line, what did you take from this event? What did you learn from it?

DW: God‘s in control and God’s not done with me yet – or my family members.

JWK: So, how did the two of you come together to get this movie off the ground, so to speak.

Roma Downey: A guy called Brian Egeston wrote the screenplay. He had reached out to Doug. When he saw the story he knew that it was an extraordinary story…and the script ended up at my desk. I run Lightworkers which is the Faith & Family division of MGM. It’s the perfect kind of content for me and my company. It’s the kind of story that we’re interested in. It’s uplifting, it’s inspirational and it’s dramatic. I mean you couldn’t make it up, the nature of this story.

So, I was able to pull in a wonderful director in Sean McNamara (Soul Surfer) and a wonderful team, of course, to make the film – led by the extraordinary Dennis Quaid who plays Doug White in the movie and Heather Graham who plays his wife. The expert King Air pilot on the ground that Doug has mentioned is played by Jesse Metcalfe. So, you know, bringing any project together takes a village. We were very fortunate on On a Wing and a Prayer to have a really excellent team. The end result, I think you’ll agree, is a fantastic film. I think it’s a lean-in family film.

JWK: You know what it reminds of is those inspirational CBS Sunday Night Movies that used to follow Touched by an Angel. A lot of those were good movies!

RD: Yes.

JWK: So, Doug, are you happy with the way the movie turned out?

DW: Yes, we’re happy! My family and I are quite satisfied…You can take a two-year-old to see it or you can take a 102-year-old grandmother to see it. You can show it in a church building with no worries.

JWK: What do you both hope that people take from the movie?

DW: I hope that several thousand people become more curious about God, His Son, His Church and The Word etcetera and want to investigate that for lack of a better term and, maybe, get involved if they never had been in their life. The second thing, the people that have been involved with the Church over the years and have left, for them to step back…and do a self-examination of where they’re at and say “You know, I might oughta rethink this” and repent and come back to the Church. That’s what I’m hoping.

I hope it’s also a great success for the studio and I hope it’s also a great professional boost for Brian Egeston who (has become) a friend of mine. We’re brothers! Brian came to my house in Louisiana for three days probably…I introduced him to all of my buddies and stuff. He pushed “record” one day on the tape recorder and he didn’t turn it off for like two hours. The writers, they do a lot of research and stuff…We have talked over the years and become close.

JWK: So, a friendship came out of this. That’s interesting.

RD: Brian is a really wonderful screenwriter. It’s come together marvelously. My hope is that it inspires audiences everywhere. It’s an entertaining film, of course, but it’s (also) inspiring and hopeful and it reminds each of us that extraordinary things can happen.

JWK: So, how did the two of you work together during the filming?

DW: We worked well together for the last 90 minutes. This is the first time I ever met her.

RD: We made the movie during the Covid experience which was a challenge on any set. You know, in all of our industry they kept people apart. So, we had met only via Zoom up until today. I’m very grateful to Doug and his family and, through extension, Brian for trusting us to make this story (and) to bring this incredible story to light. I think that the movie is made all the more thrilling because you can turn to the person next to you and say “Oh, my goodness! This is a true story!”

(Note: My conversation with Jesse Metcalfe, as well as my review of the film, will run Friday.) 

John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God.