Trailer premiere of ‘Heavenquest,’ inspired by John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'
King Street Pictures released the trailer for its groundbreaking faith-based fantasy adventure film, "Heavenquest: A Pilgrim's Progress,” based on the iconic 1678 novel The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.
The Pilgrim's Progress, cited as the first novel written in English, has been translated into over 200 languages and has never been out of print. Now, the beloved Christian allegory will be put to film in "Heavenquest.”
"'Pilgrim's Progress' is an amazingly crafted allegory, and as I sat reading this to my two sons years ago, I knew that it needed an update, a new vision, a reimagining — something relevant and gritty," Director Matt Bilen said in a statement shared with The Christain Post.
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Filmed on a micro-budget, 1/500th of a typical studio film, “Heavenquest” was filmed without a full script and with only a tiny crew. Filmmakers reimagined what may have happened before The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Executive Producer Darren Wilson stated, "Over the last decade of making my genre busting documentaries, Matt Bilen has been by my side pretty much every step of the way. It was really no surprise to me, then that he would attempt something as outlandish as 'Heavenquest' for his first feature.”
“For this film, he not only had a smaller budget to work with than most of my documentaries, but he broke nearly every rule for first time filmmakers: don’t shoot at night, don’t shoot in many hard to reach locations, don’t shoot without a script, don’t make a fantasy film that requires special effects … the list goes on and on. But I think what people will see when they watch this movie is something that comes from a place of true passion. The people who break artistic rules are typically the ones who are forced by their own ideas to birth something unique to the world. Matt’s definitely done that with this movie.”
The new trailer reveals the film’s stunning cinematography and CGI work while giving viewers a glimpse into the action-packed storyline.
"I really wanted to do something a bit different in the faith film space and felt Pilgrim's Progress would allow me to push some boundaries and try some new things. Yes, it needed reimagining and some adaptation for contemporary and savvy audiences, but that's what I tried to do. It's all there in that story but we wanted to build a world where we could tell more stories in the future," Bilen said.
"Heavenquest” brought together an international cast of well-known actors. The cast includes one of South Korea's most successful stars, In-Pyo Cha, as well as Karyme Lozano and Fernanda Romero from Mexico, Peta Sergeant from Australia, Ricky Kim from South Korea and well-known American Christian actor Alan Powell as one of the leads in the film.
On Oct. 25, "Heavenquest" will be available for 48 hours to stream at heavenquestfilm before its official release in 2020.
