90 Minutes in Heaven is being released across the US on September 11th, based on the remarkable true story of Don Piper, who died, experienced Heaven and returned back to life 90 minutes later. The film explores his experience and his struggles but most importantly shows that hope lives.
We chatted with Don and Eva Piper about Heaven, their struggles and the film, this is part three of our interview which we talk about the film, in part one we spoke about Heaven and part two covered their struggles.
Click here to read Part One: Heaven
Click here to read Part Two: Struggles and Faith
Part Three: The Film
How did you feel knowing that your experience was being turned into a film?
Don: A little overwhelming frankly, I jokingly say I never counted on my life being for sale at the grocery store, now its on the big screen with major film stars portraying us so its surreal actually, its really difficult for us to wrap our brains around frankly.
Eva: It’s very humbling that people would be this interested in our story, we believe this is a God thing.
It must be so hard to recreate what you saw in Heaven, as we don’t have the technology to do it.
Don: No, no we don’t, and here we are using CG and even then with all the technology we have at our disposal today, it’s heaven, it’s not here, it’s there and we just don’t have the words or the pictures to do it, but they did a glorious job, the best they could to try to re-create what I saw in those minutes that I was extraordinarily privileged to be there.
True stories are sometimes difficult to adapt for film without making changes, how closely did you work with the film’s producers and how closely does the film stick to your experience?
Eva: Very close, definitely holds true that was one of the reasons and thats one of the main reasons that we agreed to do this with Giving Films because Rick Jackson (producer) made the promise from the beginning that they would be true to the book and they were, they sent Don the scripts and he made suggestions and very often those suggestions were taken. Don was on set maybe 85% of the time, I was there about 50% of the time and very often they would come over either prior to a scene or following a scene and ask our opinion “was this how this happened or is there anything we need to do different.” We were actively involved in the filming of the movie and it actually does a wonderful portrayal of the book 90 Minutes in Heaven.
Thats encouraging to know and Giving Films are a bit different in that they give away 100% of their profits too.
Don: Yes, they are quite actually different. I was sitting on the press junket with Hayden Christensen, the young man who plays me and he was stunned, he just could hardly believe that a company like this would actually make a movie and you know its quite expensive to make movies and promote the movie and now distribute the movie and give away the profits to children without homes and widows and widowers who have no place to go and military people who are suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome and issues like this which will benefit as a result of this movie and for us that is a win-win situation, the story is being told and it’s benefiting other people who can’t help themselves so I don’t think it gets any better than that.
The audience could be affected by this film, even the actors and the crew may be affected by this film too and also its going to affect other people in different parts of the world through what Giving Films is doing too.
Don: Well it’s interesting, when we did some previews in Orlando earlier a few weeks ago for the International Christian Retail Show, my German publisher and my Norwegian publisher were in the audience, they were so excited because the book has been quite successful in those countries. Its published in 46 different languages. I do think this will have a worldwide impact because its a universal story, its a story of humans in crisis and how they have to deal with that crisis and their beliefs, if you do die what happens next? I often say the death rate here is 100% so we best be prepared for what happens next. This film is about that, are you ready? Its also are you ready for crisis? because it’s inevitable that if we live long enough, sooner or later we’re gonna need a miracle and it’s a film about miracles.
The film could help people from all sorts of points of view like learning Heaven is real, miracles happen, healings happen, there is a lot in the film that people can take away.
Don: We certainly hope so, we hope its a film that appeals to all people whether they’re Christ followers or not because everybody needs hope, everybody needs to know that even though you may have been knocked down, you need not be knocked out. That we’re hoping is the take away, we hope that people walk out of the film knowing that Heaven is real and you can go there and you can have a better trip on the way to heaven than the one you’re having.
The film is being released on September 11th, a time when people think of tragedy, was there a reason for the film being released on that date? To show people that there is hope?
Eva: Indeed, because that was the day where we as Americans needed hope, it was a dark dark tragic day, I don’t think any American at that time, that was alive that day will ever forget where they were. I know I wont. We wanted this film to come out and provide a ray of sunshine, a ray of light, a ray of hope in the remembrance of the day that was so dark.
Don: When those planes hit those buildings they hit the world, it was a world event. It really shocked the world because it was so senseless and so surreal, so hideously evil and we want to counteract that, we want people to know that God is real and God is good and He endures, He’s still there and He cares about us even in the face of tragedy. The subtitle of the movie is Hope Lives and September 11th seemed a very appropriate date to remind us of that.
What one thing would you want the audience to come away with after watching the film?
Eva: Hope. I want them to walk out being inspired, knowing that whatever happens to you, God is there and He will bring you through and eventually if you are a believer He will bring you home to Heaven.
Don: I think we will all be confronted with our mortality as a result of watching this movie, and we should be. I mean it’s not that we should always be afraid to walk out the door incase we get hit by a truck. We have to be ready to know we do face mortality, we are not immortal in our present state, so what happens next? I think the movie will help us understand that there is a better place, it’s called heaven and we believe that Jesus is the way to the place and also if you know where you are going, shouldn’t you be living a better life than you are now. Living in confidence of our eternal destination should affect the way we live our lives now no matter how difficult the lives may be. It is a hopeful movie, it is joyful in conclusion but it’s a story that still lives on, we were sitting in the audience to watch it premiere and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place – 4,000 people, it had that kind of affect on the audience. We’re just praying that God will use it in a remarkable way.
Click here to read Part One: Heaven
Click here to read Part Two: Struggles and Faith
90 Minutes in Heaven is released across the US on September 11th.