With the opening weekend box office success of Jumping The Broom for Tri-Star/Sony Pictures, it looks like the studio may have found it’s very own Tyler Perry in the form of Rev. T.D. Jakes, who has already produced several films, including Broom; now Rev. Jakes has struck a deal to co-produce (along with veteran Hollywood producer and former Fox Studio chief Joe Roth ) a filmed version of the best selling non-fiction book Heaven is For Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip To Heaven And Back.
The book, written by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent, which has sold over 4.5 million copies to date, and has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for weeks, chronicles the story of Burpo’s now 11 year old son Colton. When he was 4 years old, he nearly died during an emergency appendectomy operation.
However, after he recovered, Colton told his family that he “went to Heaven, actually looking down at the doctors operating on him and his family praying in the waiting room. And he slowly began telling them details about his miscarried sister, and his long-dead grandfather, none of which he should have known about. He then revealed to his family what it was like during his visit in Heaven, before he was sent back to his family.“
You know, I had an emergency appendectomy operation myself, about 12 years ago, and I didn’t see nuttin!
No word yet as to a script (which one assumes is being written right now), cast, director or a shooting start date.