Richard Dutcher Telling Reel Stories.

• Author: Cole, Kelleigh
• Position: Brief Article

Richard Dutcher says he doesn't care if anyone beats him on a basketball court, but when he has an idea for a movie, there is little that can stop him. As president of Zion Films, a Provo film company, Dutcher became an actor, writer, director, producer and businessman to bring movies about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the big screen.

Dutcher credits much of his current success to his first film, the romantic comedy Girl Crazy which he describes as his "master's thesis" because it forced him to immerse himself in the movie-making process. With no business experience, he financed the film by starting a limited partnership and selling shares to anyone who would buy them. "It put me in a real-life business world where I had people I barely knew investing in the film," he says.

After selling the film to HBO and making most of the money back, Dutcher decided to focus on making mainstream films for an LDS audience. "I open up a newspaper and there is nothing I want to see because my fellow Mormon filmmakers aren't making anything; or if they are making something, it's just Hollywood junk so I'm not interested in that either," Dutcher says.

His first LDS-themed film, God's Army, was budgeted at cost a total of $300,000. To stay within budget, he shot the movie on 16mm film instead of the standard 35 mm format, choreographed the cameras so he could use fewer of them, and found locations where he could shoot for free. He also traded Jack-in-the-Box product placement for food so he could feed his actors, who worked mostly on deferred payments.

Dutcher then began calling major theatre chains to explain Utah's demographics, eventually convincing the chains to give the film a try in limited release. With only enough money to make 13 prints, he focused on screening the film in the local theaters with the best picture and sound quality. God's Army went on to gross $2.6 million and eventually...