Are you familiar with The Shack? If you're Christian it's pretty likely you're familiar with the best-selling novel from William Paul Young about transformation and healing, which has dominated virtually every chart used to track book sales. Now it’s making the leap to the big screen to try and bring Young’s message to a larger audience through a feature-film adaptation.
Summit Entertainment, according to ComingSoon, has picked up the rights to Young’s Christian novel, which initially was self-published in 2007. The story follows a man named Mackenzie Philips, a father of five who endures a massive personal tragedy – which you have to read, because if I told you, you wouldn’t believe it. “Mack,” as he’s known, sinks into “The Great Sadness,” and must be invited on a personal journey to salvation by “Papa” … his wife’s nickname for God. In the process, “Mack” helps to potentially solve a heinous crime and – for real, stop reading and grab the book, or just wait patiently for the film adaptation.
Summit says that Michael Paseornek, Lionsgate’s President of Motion Picture Production, Matthew Janzen, Lionsgate’s Vice President of Production & Development, and Bree Bailey, Lionsgate’s Director of Production and Development, will oversee the project for the studio. It will be interesting to see who they are able to attract for the directing gig, as that will go a long way towards determining whether The Shack appeals to mainstream audiences (like The Passion of the Christ) or targets a Christian niche like similar movies The Nativity Story or Fireproof. Maybe it could strike the same gold as the recent Bible miniseries?
We’ll continue to track the progress of The Shack, which could test box-office records if the people who picked up the book grab a ticket to the film.
