Director’s Statement

“Loaded Paradise” happened as I was working on a musical about the King James version of the Old Testament. Some of the stories in this book are just – wild. Things you don’t generally hear about in popular Christian culture. At the same time, I was reading a fair amount of Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore, and was really digging their modern interpretations of old gods. Not just modernized versions of old stories, but new stories, with the gods in modern speech, context, etc.

There was a point where the musical was stumping me, and a question came into my mind: “Has anyone done a Gaiman / Moore sort of modern revamp with the Christian pantheon?” I hadn’t seen anything quite like this, and so decided to write it myself. Soon, it was God, Jesus, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and the Holy Spirit, a lot of booze, and a loaded gun.

I see it very much as a story from the perspective of a non-Christian who has been raised in a very (warped, to my mind) “Christian” culture. I feel I have every bit as much right to speak about these beings as any Christian, due to the pervasiveness of these deities’ identities in my cultural soup.

The film is a story about the fractured relationship between a father and a son, and the fallout that relationship has on the family and friends around them. It is also, above all, about forgiveness. And if I’ve done my job right, the audience will be able to see themselves in these deific beings, and be able to feel and identify with the characters’ transformations throughout the film.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy “Loaded Paradise” immensely. Please check back often to see where it will be showing next.