I was in the middle of putting together Furious Love, locked away in my studio, experiencing some of the most intense, emotional 3 months of my life on a daily basis, when I received a phone call out of the blue from someone saying he represented Ken Shamrock, and they were curious as to whether or not I was interested in filming his story. The way he said “Ken Shamrock”, I got the feeling this was someone I was supposed to have heard of, but in all honesty, I didn’t have a clue who this was. So I did what everyone who needs information does: I googled him.

That was my first tip that this guy was kind of a big deal.

But it most certainly was NOT a movie I wanted to make. For one, I was in the middle of Furious Love fever, and making a movie about a UFC fighter was the last thing on my list to do–especially since I don’t watch UFC fighting at all. But, I figured I should at least talk to the guy, so I told him to call me back in a few days when I had some time to talk.

Before our conversation, I did what I always do now when it’s time to make decisions: I prayed. Also as usual, I was blatantly honest with the Lord, this was not the time for pretense or posturing that I’m more spiritual than I really am. I told Him, quite frankly, that I had no interest in doing this movie, and I don’t even really like fighting, so if this actually IS something you want me to do, well, you better make it crystal clear. He was going to have to change my heart in a big way, because I was fully prepared to say no.

The phone rang, I answered, and we talked for about 20 minutes. When I hung up the phone, I prayed again. This time, it was a little different.

“Okay, you’ve got me. I have to make this movie. I’ll do it.”

I can’t really explain what happened during that phone call, but something in my spirit shifted, and I just knew that this was a film I had to make. After having spent the last year filming with Ken, hearing his story, hearing his heart, I think I’m beginning to see why the Lord wanted me to make this movie. For starters, it’s going to be nothing like my first two films, Finger of God and Furious Love. This is not a movie for the church or Christians. This is a movie for aggressive, violent youth, fans of the fight game, fans of Ken, and in general, for a mass of people who wouldn’t be caught dead stepping foot in a church. That in itself might be the most exciting aspect of all of this to me and my crew.

Ken has been approached by many different production companies to tell his story, but he’s turned them all down because he knew they would take the “God stuff” out. But Ken is a believer, through and through–he’s just taken a very long, very rough road to get there. He watched Finger of God and was blown away by it, and figured well, here’s a guy who obviously isn’t afraid of a little controversy, so I was the first person he reached out to tell his story. While it is certainly true that this film will be controversial (especially for my hard core fans–prepare yourselves, because we pull no punches in telling Ken’s story), it will also be an uplifting one, and above all, an honest one.

Ken and his wife Tonya have been wonderful to work with from a filmmaker’s perspective, simply because nothing was off limits. Ken’s past drug use, womanizing, and violence was told to us with no sugar coating. It will be a raw, exposing film, but will also point to a God who sticks with us even when we’re running from Him as fast as we can.

Right now, the film is called Fighting Shadows. We are beginning the post-production for this documentary, and are hoping for a late 2011 release.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.