Jeffrey Harmon, Chief Content material Officer of faith-skewed upstart growth, movie finance and distribution firm Angel Studios, swapped its residence metropolis of Provo in Utah for London this week.
The exec touched down within the UK capital for a gala screening on Sunday of episodes one and two of UK director Paul Syrstad’s collection Testomony. The up to date adaptation of the biblical New Testomony tome, the Acts of the Apostles is shot towards the backdrop of London.
“The complete group behind Testomony is London-based. They filmed it right here in London, they’re all from the UK. We got here right here to have fun the launch with the group,” says Harmon, co-founder of Angel Studios with brothers Neal, Daniel and Jordan Harmon, in addition to cousin, Benton Crane.
Angel Studios additionally has a rising distribution footprint within the UK, due to its not too long ago fashioned partnership with faith-based distributor Kova Releasing, which kicked off this spring with biopic Bonhoeffer, about anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and animation The King of Kings.
“We’ve launched lots of theatrical releases right here and we expect that Testomony will resonate effectively with the British viewers,” says Harmon, who can also be predicting success in different English-language territories.
Testomony is on a slate of productions backed by the Sound of Freedom distributor, filming or because of movie within the UK and Eire over the approaching months.
“The variety of productions we’re filming right here is fairly vital,” says Harmon.
They embody fantasy collection The Wayfinders, with Mackenzie Criminal (Pirates of the Caribbean) Tamara Sensible (Percy Jackson, Evan Nikolas Fields (Hacks) and Vincent Mattis (Teenwolf: The Film) – which is produced by U.S. firm Arrowstorm and Limerick-based Darkish Day Image and presently taking pictures in Eire; youngsters’s present Tuttle Twins, which is animated in Eire and the UK; and Younger Washington.
“It’s a film,” says Harmon of the latter mission. “It can shoot right here later this 12 months and are available out on the 250th anniversary of the USA (July 4, 2026). It’s being filmed right here to get the suitable kind of atmosphere that feels extra like when George Washington grew up,” he says.
Additional UK-based tasks within the works embody Fellowship, in regards to the friendship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as they wrote their respective classics, The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, which is being developed by Testomony director Syrstad.
Harmon additionally sees connections within the sturdy presence of British and Irish voice forged members on The King of Kings, which included Kenneth Branagh, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley alongside U.S. stars comparable to Uma Thurman and Mark Hamill, as an additional connection.
Testomony
Spearheaded and present run by Syrstad, Testomony retells the early days of Christianity following the demise and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
The collection begins on the day of the Pentecost, on which, per the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles and different followers of Jesus of Nazareth whereas they had been in Jerusalem celebrating the Jewish Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot.
Angels Studios, which co-financed Testomony with Vicky Patel, Steve Barnett and Alan Powell’s London-based Monarch Media, has international rights to the present and can launch it on its streaming App on June 8, to coincide with the Pentecost non secular feast this 12 months.
The drama is produced by Jackie Sheppard for Syrstad’s UK faith-based movie manufacturing firm Roarlight Ltd.
Harmon (second from left backside row) with the forged, director and producers of Testomony.
Redshootphotography
The ensemble forged options Eben Figueiredo (SOLO: A Star Wars Story), Charlie Beaven (The Crown), Yasmin Paige (Submarine), Stewart Scudamore (Carnival Row), Mogali Masuku (The Gold), Tom Simper (EastEnders), Kenneth Omole (Prime Boy), John Omole (Chewing Gum), Aadar Malik (Modern Love Mumbai), Bobbie Little (Physician Unusual In The Multiverse of Insanity), Gary Oliver (Recreation of Thrones), Mido Hamada (American Sniper), Solomon Israel (Physician Who), and Lizzie Hopley (The Crown).
Angel Studios first linked with Syrstad by means of his 2022 characteristic, Testomony: The Parables Retold, for which it took international rights and delivered greater than two million on-line views. The director, who has been giving common updates on the present’s progress on social networks, has stated he’s planning 5 eight-part seasons of the present.
The London-setting – which sees the Previous Royal Naval School in Greenwich stand in for the long-destroyed Temple in Jerusalem and the descent of the Holy Spirit happen in a housing property – is disconcerting.
Harmon says the transposition of the story to a London backdrop follows a convention of biblical imagery tailored to the territories and eras during which it was created.
“In case you have a look at Africa, Jesus and the Nativity appear like Africans; if you happen to go to Germany, they appear like Germans; if you happen to go to India, they appear like Indians and if you happen to go to Asia, they appear like Asians,” he says.
“In each single space, the artists have taken the story of Jesus and brought inventive liberties to make one thing that’s relatable to the inhabitants at the moment. In case you go to Italy, Jesus is on the Passover dinner and there are fluffy rolls on the desk. These work wouldn’t have made any sense to the Jews as a result of it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.”
He believes the near-future, undefinable interval of the drama will attraction to up to date audiences.
“Immediately, individuals need dystopian alternate universes. It’s a dystopian alternate world the place they don’t have weapons, they’ve swords nonetheless, however there’s electrical energy. It’s a very completely different world with completely different guidelines from proper now.”
Angels Studios’ funding within the drama has been partly raised by means of its Angel Guild program below which members pay a month-to-month payment in return for a say on future movie and exhibits, in addition to perks comparable to free tickets for theatrical releases and unique behind the scene content material.
“In case you’re a part of the Angel Guild, you watched Testomony a very long time in the past when it was tough cuts and Sound of Freedom earlier than it got here out in theaters; you watched King of Kings earlier than it was even completed being animated and also you’re in a position to give the administrators suggestions,” says Harmon.
“There’s 1.2 million individuals in that Guild from over 155 international locations voting on the movies and TV collection which are coming into Angel Studios,” he provides, explaining
This represents a near five-fold soar within the 250,000-strong determine quoted by CEO Neal Harmon in an interview with Deadline 14 months in the past.
“It’s changing the gatekeeper system that’s existed in Hollywood, which is the place a few dozen individuals make all the selections over 95% of the field workplace. We’re flipping that on its head and saying, let’s simply ask the viewers what they really need,” he continues.
Angel Studios additionally raises finance by means of its regulated crowdfunding platform, Angel Funding, which has supported near 30 productions so far. In response to info posted on its residence web page, Testomony raised slightly below $900,000 from some 1,800 backers over two crowdfunding rounds.
Harmon highlights Angel Studios’ modern fee system for filmmakers, which relies on watch time for a movie or present per thirty days on the Angel Studios platform as a proportion of the complete watch time for all of the content material out there.
“We’ve paid out $179 million to this point to filmmakers as of March of this 12 months,” he says, mentioning the corporate’s web site, displaying the info. “Each filmmaker can come on right here calculate what they need to get. Each different streamer performs a flat payment. We’re making it in order that filmmakers earn on the upside, which is one thing that hasn’t occurred for the reason that DVD, Blu-ray period. This brings us again to the Golden Age of Hollywood, in order that when filmmakers make a terrific piece of artwork, they get timeless residuals.”
The mannequin is paying off each on the field workplace with The King of Kings grossing $67M worldwide since its theatrical launch on April 11, whereas the corporate’s most latest launch The Final Rodeo has grossed $10.75M in North American since opening on Could 23, the identical days as Lilo & Sew and Mission: Unattainable – The Last Reckoning.
Neal McDonough in ‘The Final Rodeo’
Spencer Click on
“This 12 months we’re placing eight motion pictures in theaters and over 100 motion pictures on streaming and a number of other collection as effectively… in field workplace, we’re already high ten within the U.S. We’ve been in there in 2023 and 2024. In 2025 we’re already quantity 9 within the field workplace, neck and neck with MGM, however we’re simply getting began,” says Harmon.
The corporate’s latest observe report marks a comeback for the Harmon brothers, who constructed Angel Studios on the ashes of their earlier distribution enterprise, VidAngel.
The family-friend label got here a cropper after it was slapped with a multi-million-dollar copyright lawsuit by Disney, Warner Bros. and different main Hollywood studios for making unauthorized cuts – of scenes deemed unsuitable for household viewing by the brothers – to their motion pictures and collection on their catalogs.
The studios gained and had been granted a $62m settlement, diminished to $10m, to be repaid over 14 years, whereas the label was barred from streaming any of the complainants’ titles.
Undeterred, the household reemerged from their authorized battle to the launch Angel Studios in March 2021, with a brand new mannequin during which they assist bankroll unique content material during which they’ve enter from the beginning. Additionally they continued to run their inventive advert company Harmon Brothers, which launched in 2013.
A lot is written in regards to the household’s Mormon connections however Harmon is eager to emphasise that Angel Studios’ slate goes past faith-based storytelling.
He factors to fantasy journey collection The Wayfinders, directed by Glen Winter (Smallville) and created by Jason Faller and Kynan Griffin (The Outpost), with co-writers Adam F. Goldberg (The Goldbergs), Hans Rodionoff (The Muppets Mayhem), and Justin Partridge.
“It’s not a religion collection. The filmmakers are believers, however the collection isn’t religion any greater than The Lord of the Rings is religion,” he says.
In an additional signal of the corporate’s rising footprint, it can obtain the inaugural “Breakout Distributor of the Yr” awards at CineEurope 2025, the long-running European cinema trade conference, because of happen from June 16 to 19 in Barcelona.
Harmon says it’s an honor however suggests the corporate is just in the beginning of its progress journey. Quizzed on the size of firm’s ambitions compared to international platform Netflix, he replies: “Rather less than half of our movies having religion parts in them, however we’re largely household pleasant and that’s the largest market on the planet. So completely, we anticipate to one of many huge gamers.”
