11 Hollywood Movies with Unexpected Mormon Connections
This article was originally published in LDS Living by Jamie Armstrong. Below is an excerpt.
From behind the scenes to center stage, Mormons are a formidable force in Hollywood.
Church members have some solid credibility in Hollywood, with classics like Napoleon Dynamite and more recent successes such as The Twilight Saga, Ender’s Game, The Maze Runner, and Austenland all based on novels written by LDS authors. Here are 11 famous movies you might not realize have LDS connections.
1. Star Wars (1977)
Some spiritual aspects of Star Wars were influenced by LDS film producer Gary Kurtz. A Los Angeles native, film producer Kurtz was born on July 27, 1940. His collaboration with George Lucas and Lucasfilm began in 1973 with the film American Graffiti, which was a huge box office hit. He then went on to influence many of the spiritual aspects of Star Wars and its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, as the producer. He also produced “The Dark Crystal” and “Return to Oz.”
2. Captain Phillips (2013)
Church member Mike Perry spent 45 years on the seas, becoming a Merchant Marine in 1995 after retiring from the Navy as a lieutenant commander. He was a crew member on the merchant ship Maersk Alabama when it was attacked off the coast of Somalia in 2009.
The harrowing story was portrayed on the big screen in the movie Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks. Actor David Warshofsky plays Perry in the film.
Perry risked his life by subduing one of the pirates and helping disarm him. That pirate was eventually used as a bargaining chip by the ship’s captain, Richard Phillips, who was captured along with another crewmember in the first minutes of the attack.
Perry told the press, “I didn’t pattern myself after Chuck Norris or Jackie Chan,” referring to his actions on the ship. “The only thing that got me ready for this was the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
To read the rest of the 11 Hollywood Movies, go to LDS Living.