Local faith film among mix of popular movies

Hollywood has discovered that Americans are interested in religious topics, and recent releases are a good example.

The Fridley Theater in McCook, for example, is showing "Noah," a controversial adaptation of the Old Testament flood story, and Friday will start showing "God's Not Dead," a story about a college student risking his future to attempt to prove that God is real.

The trend will continue next week with the release of a film that will get the attention of Southwest Nebraskans, who have been following the story of an Imperial family since their story became the best-selling book from which the film was adapted.

"Heaven is for Real" is the story of Colton Burpo, now a freshman at Chase County Schools, who returned from a near-death experience at the age of 4 with information about heaven, angels and family members he could not have known through conventional means.

Colton's father Todd, pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, is portrayed by Greg Kinnear, Kelly Reilly plays his wife, Sonja, and Connor Corum plays Colton and Lane Styles plays sister Cassie.

The film's nationwide opening, including the Imperial Theatre, is Wednesday; watch listings for showings in your area.

Meanwhile, the Burpo family has been touring across the United States and abroad to tell their story.

While the movie wasn't filmed in Imperial, family and community scenes were filmed by a Sony crew in March, which will likely be included on the DVD release.

During the showing April 18-20, the Imperial Theatre will give half of all concession proceeds and accept donations for the Travis Wheeler family, members of Crossroads Wesleyan Church. Travis is battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and underwent a bone marrow transplant in January. His father, Bruce, is a former projectionist at the Imperial Theatre.

More information on "Heaven is for Real" is available at http://www.heavenlive.org/