THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407020165
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
The cell in the old Suffolk City Jail is dark and dank, its walls pockmarked.
It is 7 by 9 feet, leaving only enough room for the double bunk, metal sink and toilet.
A look through the hardened steel bars shows one prisoner in his bunk, the other standing alongside.
As you can imagine, there is room for nothing else, no one else - unless you count half-a-dozen moviemakers and several thousand dollars worth of equipment.
Several scenes of Regent University's latest production, ``Prison to Praise,'' are being filmed in Suffolk.
The moviemakers were in jail recently. A flashback-to-the-1940s scene will be shot at G.M. Epps Farm Supply Co. at 162 South Main St. on July 9.
Filming of Sunday services, covering the same decade, will be held Tuesday at Beech Grove United Methodist Church in Driver.
Local folk will serve as extras, portraying churchgoers entranced by a sermon by Merlin Carothers, the subject of the 55-minute film based on his 1970 autobiography.
The story has a familiar theme - a man who wants nothing to do with God, but comes to Him after several setbacks in his life.
Carothers, at one time arrested for going AWOL from the Army, once served as a personal guard for Gen. Dwight Eisenhower.
While in Germany he became involved in several shady black market deals.
The movie tells of later commitment to God leading to Carothers' service as an Army chaplain, and his attempts to reach a young man who seems to be headed in the wrong direction, from whence Carothers had come.
``It deals with his memories - there are several flashbacks,'' said Tracy Johnson of Tulsa, a co-producer along with Liv Aatland of Norway.
The cast and crew are Regent University students, most of whom are connected with the School of Radio, Television and Film. Some graduates, local actors and industry professionals are also involved.
``Prison to Praise,'' which requires 20 days of filming winding up in Suffolk on next Saturday, is being filmed in 10 Hampton Roads locales including Regent and Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk.
The military scenes find Camp Pendleton in Virginia Beach doubling for Fort Benning, Ga.
The movie, which has 40 speaking parts and a cast of more than 100, is budgeted for $60,000. Of that amount, $55,000 was a grant from Carothers, who will use it in his ministry.
The rest of the money came from the university's summer movie budget.
``Prison to Praise'' is the largest film, in scope, ever done by Regent,'' Johnson said.
Equally impressive is the movie's director, Andrew Charles Addington Quicke, associate Professor of Communication at Regent, whose credits include work as a BBC producer and with Middle Eastern Television, a branch of CBN, in Lebanon.
His directorial efforts on ``Prison To Praise'' will be shown the public initially at the Naro Theater in Norfolk next spring.
In addition to becoming a part of Carothers' ministry, there are plans to distribute the movie, via Gospel Films, for showings in churches, and as a rental for military chaplains, all designed to give his story still wider distribution.
More than 13 million copies of his autobiography are in print. Recently, 50,000 copies were distributed in Russia, along with Bibles; military chaplains distributed more than 20,000 copies to soldiers during the Gulf War.
``The book is to encourage others to trust God,'' Carothers said, ``and to let Him work out the good in their lives.'' MEMO: A spring or fall scene from the 1940s, part of the Regent University
film, ``Prison to Praise,'' will be shot Tuesday at Beech Grove United
Methodist Church in Driver. Anyone wishing to participate in the filming
must show up at noon wearing clothes appropriate to the period. Makeup
will be applied as necessary. Please do not call the university for
appointments. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Stewart Reed stars in ``Prison to Praise,'' a Regent University
film. This scene was being shot in the old Suffolk City Jail.
by CNB