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World Wide Pictures
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Foundation date 1 january 1951
World Wide Pictures (WWP) is a film distributor and production company established as a subsidiary of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) in 1951. It is involved in the production and distribution of evangelistic films, the production of Graham crusade films, and publicity for Graham crusades.
WWP got its start after Graham met Dick Ross, who had produced a documentary film of Graham's 1950 crusade in Portland, Oregon. That film's success led the BGEA to buy Ross's production company, and hire him as the president of a new BGEA subsidiary incorporated as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Film Ministry (which was to be WWP's official name until 1980).
WWP's first feature film was Mr. Texas, produced during Graham's 1951 Fort Worth, Texas Crusade. It was also during the 1950s that WWP established production facilities in Burbank, California.
Perhaps WWP's best-known production was the 1965 film The Restless Ones, featuring Kim Darby. It was the first theatrical movie. According to an October 14, 1966 issue of Christianity Today more than 120,000 professions of faith were recorded after more than two million people viewed the film. Other major feature films included Two a Penny (1965), which starred Cliff Richard. Both The Hiding Place (1975) (with Julie Harris) and Time to Run (1973) received Golden Globe nominations for Most Promising Newcomer.
WWP stopped national releases of its films in the late 1980s. The company sold its Burbank studio, moved its headquarters to Minneapolis, and switched to working with independent producers and distributing films to churches, on home video, and as made-for-TV movies.
They cautiously returned to feature films in 2001, with the limited national release of Road to Redemption, WWP's first comedy after over 125 films (including nine major motion pictures). The film starred Pat Hingle. It was followed by The Climb, which starred Jason Winston George, Ned Vaughn, and Dabney Coleman, and featured Todd Bridges. In 2003, the company released its latest film Last Flight Out.
Filmography of World Wide Pictures (5 films)
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The Climb (2002)
, 1h41Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action
Themes Films about religion, Sports films
Actors Jason George, Ned Vaughn, Dabney Coleman, David Stuart, Todd Bridges
This is a Christian film about two rock climbers, who meet each other during a rescue get a chance to realize a climb of a lifetime, but with an unexpected change: they have to work together. It is a special team, with totally different people, who have different life goals, different views, but use the same climbing technique. It is action filled, but also heart touching film about egoism, responsibility and forgiveness. Derrick (Jason George) is a very selfish person who wants to do the big climbing solo, and Michael (Ned Vaughn) who is a Christian person with a good heart.
Tunnel Vision (1976)
, 1h10Directed by Neal Israel
Genres Comedy
Actors Roger Bowen, Chevy Chase, John Candy, Howard Hesseman, Joe Flaherty, Laraine Newman
The plot of the movie revolves around a new television network called TunnelVision which is notably free of censorship and has thus become the most-watched channel in television history. In the then-future year of 1985, the president of TunnelVision (Proctor) is under Senate investigation led by a Senator (Hesseman) who wishes to shut down the channel due to its perceived widespread negative effects on the population of the United States. The bulk of the movie consists of commercials, shorts, and trailers for fictional movies that are usually not connected to one another. These are being shown during a Congressional Oversight Committee hearing as a representative day of TunnelVision programming. At the end of the film, the committee finds in favor of TunnelVision, but the network president is shot and killed by a crazed French chef who had been a running gag throughout the segments.
The Hiding Place (1975)
, 2h30Directed by James F. Collier
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Historical
Themes Films about religion, Political films, Films about Jews and Judaism
Actors Julie Harris, Eileen Heckart, Arthur O'Connell, David de Keyser, Nigel Hawthorne, Cyril Shaps
As the Nazis invade the Netherlands in 1940, Corrie and her family allow Jews to hide in a part of their home that is specially remodeled by members of the Dutch resistance. However, the Nazis eventually discover that Corrie and her family are hiding Jews, and on February 28, 1944, the entire family and their friends are arrested after their betrayal by a Dutch collaborator. The hidden Jews are never found by authorities. Corrie's father, Casper, dies before he reaches the concentration camp, and Corrie worries that she will never see her home again. The Nazis send Corrie and her sister, Betsie, to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany for hiding Jews in their home. At the concentration camp, Betsie encourages Corrie to remain hopeful that God will rescue them from the brutalities they experience. With little food and constant work, the women suffer constantly, and Corrie's sister Betsie (Julie Harris), dies. Ultimately, Corrie (Jeanette Clift George) leaves the camp in December, 1944 through what is discovered years later to have been a clerical error, as everyone else in her group of prisoners was gassed the following month (January, 1945). Her life after this ordeal was dedicated to showing that Jesus' love is greater than the deepest pit into which humankind finds itself.
Two A Penny (1967)
, 1h38Directed by James F. Collier
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Musical
Themes Films about religion, Musical films
Actors Cliff Richard, Dora Bryan, Avril Angers, Geoffrey Bayldon, Peter Barkworth, Mona Washbourne
Jamie Hopkins (Cliff Richard), an art student and frustrated pop star lives with his mother (Dora Bryan), who works as a receptionist for Dr. Berman (Donald Bisset), a psychiatrist who is experimenting with psychedelic drugs. Jamie wants to make money quickly, and begins to work at the doctor's office as a pretence in order to steal drugs.
Man in the 5th Dimension (1964)
, 28minutesGenres Documentary
Themes Films about religion
Man in the 5th Dimension opens with Graham delivering this prologue: "You are about to embark on a breathtaking journey through the four-dimensional world of space and time, into the realm of the fifth dimension – the dimension of the spirit."