The popular faith-based production company, Pure Flix Entertainment, recently released the trailer for their upcoming biblical epic, “Samson,” staring Taylor James as Samson, Caitlin Leahy as Delilah, Emmy-winning actress Lindsay Wagner as Zealphonis and Golden Globe winner Rutger Hauer as Manoah.

The film premiers on February 16, 2018, and both the production team and actors are looking forward to the official release. Director Bruce Macdonald said, “Most people know that Samson had long hair, Delilah cut it off and that he lost his strength. But there’s so much more. Samson was an unwilling hero and his journey to regain his faith, the whole story, is relevant in 2017.”

Jackson Rathbone, who plays Rallah in the film, is excited “to see a story taken from the Bible and to have a production company involved that actually tries to make it true to the nature of the Bible with the idea that we can actually tell a story that, hopefully, is as true to form as possible but still…try to tell a story that can really reach a broad audience.” According to Caitlin Leahy, “Samson” succeeds. “You can’t have a more epic movie,” Leahy said. “It’s got a little bit for everyone.”

In the words of Rathbone, the tale of Samson is a story of “action, romance, themes of redemption” which made it a perfect choice for a film according to producer Brittany Yost. “For us it was a perfect compliment of each other to take all of these elements that make compelling movies, combining it with a strong biblical message and then creating a theatrical feature film with it.”

The official synopsis for “Samson” reads “’Samson’ is based on the powerful, biblical champion chosen by God to deliver Israel. His supernatural strength and impulsive decisions quickly pit him against the oppressive Philistine empire. After being betrayed by a wicked prince and a beautiful temptress, Samson is captured and blinded by his enemies. Samson calls upon his God once more for supernatural strength and turns imprisonment and blindness into victory.”

The biblical story summarized in the synopsis is a familiar tale to many Christians, but Taylor James is hoping the film reaches non-Christians as well. “There’s going to be the people who are religiously aware and there’s going to be the people this is a new discovery to, but I’m a little bit more concerned about the people who are not aware of the story,” James said. “That’s the more exciting audience that we want to grab and that we want to bring them in. And we want to educate them and show them a world that they may not know about which may cause them to research more into other verses, other chapters, other stories, other biblical texts. So for the people who do know the story, I think it’s fantastic because they get to see discoveries of how scenes were played out that they have in their mind, and they see somebody else’s concept. Whereas people who don’t know the story, it just unravels in front of them, and it’s incredible.”

Rathbone agrees with James, and, as a faithful Christian, looks forward to seeing a well-known story portrayed on the big screen. “It’s one of those Bible stories that I grew up with,” Rathbone said. “As a kid going to camp you’d hear about Samson and the jawbone and the cutting of the hair, and to kind of see it come to life on the big screen would be something that, when I was a kid, I would have loved to have seen. And as a father, I’m excited to take my son to go see it.”

For Greg Kriek, who portrays Caleb in the film, “Samson” is more than just a biblically inspired film. “Purpose, God’s calling on our lives, the fact that I have a choice to be obedient or to walk away from what God calls me to do has really impacted me,” Kriek said. “The man that I was walking into this film and the man I have become during the process of this film is incredible. I couldn’t have had it any other way.”

The trailer for this powerful film is now available online, and interviews with the cast can be found on the film’s IMDb page.