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Thorns, a musical about Jesus created 25 years ago at New Life Church and watched by 250,000 locals and an additional 1 million people across the country, will premiere as a film on 740 screens in March.
A trailer for the film will premiere nationwide on Friday, followed by two new episodes of “The Chosen One,” a popular TV series about Jesus. “Thorns” tickets will be available on the day at www.fathomeevents.com.
For John Bolin, who created a simplistic version of “Thorns” as an illustrated sermon for his youth group in 1997, the film offered a way, amid concerns that the COVID shutdown could lead to After the collapse, reaching a wider audience through the story of Christ’s loving sacrifice, his play kicked off forever.
hot youth drama
When he joined the New Life staff in 1996, Boleyn was leading a Friday night youth meeting. The following year, while trying to convey the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice to a group of teenagers, he talked to a 16-year-old girl who was scarred by cuts and self-harm on her arm.
Boleyn, a graduate of Ole Roberts University, emphasizes the drama of evangelism, and he tries to help the girl understand from the heart the abuse, whipping, and scourging that Christ endured on his way to the cross.
Early versions of the show were simple. A handful of actors, in heavy makeup and lit with ordinary household lamps, performed brief scenes interspersed with mini sermons and music from U2 and Sting’s recordings. Jesus rose from under a grand piano, not from the tomb.
But the New Life leaders liked what they saw and asked Boleyn to produce a more complete version of Thorns for the church’s 1998 Easter outreach.
The show was an instant hit, drawing more than 10,000 people in its first year and repeating the show for the next ten years. Over the next few years, the production will become more complex, including trained actors and dancers, pyrotechnics, a stage that rotates 30 feet, camels and tigers, and, with the help of church volunteers, a cast of 600.
The show also appeared at Broadmoor World Arena and Pikes Peak Center to attract non-church audiences. The touring group, managed by Pauline’s wife Sarah, has taken the show to churches and venues across the country. Compassion International signed up as a travel sponsor, and attendees sponsored approximately 15,000 underprivileged children through the Colorado Springs-based ministry.
From stage to screen
Born in South Africa to ex-hippie parents—his father Rhodes recorded a folk music album in the 1960s—they started their faith through the Catholic Charismatic Revival.
He says God gave him a mission: “to tell stories on the pages, on stage, and on screen.” His writings include novels (“The Eden Project”) and Christian Growth Guides (“So Loved,” “The Two Doors of Heaven” and “Life is Unlimited”). His previous screen credit was as producer of the 2017 film The Resurrection of Gavin Stone.
Before writing the script for Thorns, Boleyn attended a workshop with noted storyteller Robert McKee. He has since added scenes and revised the score.
The film version of Thorns was filmed in Denver last March and is in post-production in Los Angeles. The film will be released in March through an agreement with Fathom Events, a centennial-based distribution company founded 20 years ago by the country’s three major movie theater chains.
The film’s scheduled release reinvigorated Bolins’ vision for the drama they’ve supported for 25 years.
“Sarah and I have invested a lot in this production over the past few decades, but it’s gotten to the point where we’re tired of not knowing we have more to give to it,” says Boleyn, who thinks Sarah keeps the project going.
“God wants us to believe in him, give it up, open our hands, and promise good things to happen.” Thorn tickets will be available on Friday at www.fathomeevents.com.
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