I recently had the pleasure of answering a few questions for a long-time friend and journalist, Angela Walker, at Christiancinema.com. She noticed that with movies like 2012 and the up-coming LEGION and BOOK OF ELI that there is a real renewed interest in films with end-times themes. They can see it in the sales and inquiries regarding our titles like REVELATION and LEFT BEHIND: THE MOVIE.


She asked what I thought was causing it which got me to thinking… It’s a bit of the tail wagging the dog. With lots of information and media coverage about the year 2012 (as a possible end of the world date based on the Mayan calendar) people become naturally curious. And once such a bold prediction is entertained more theories and counter-theories and other theories are shared.


Which spurs on the artistic community so more books, art and films all reflect the same thing. When we were approaching the year 2000 there was also a big increase in end-times’ interest. That’s when the LEFT BEHIND series of books and films became hugely popular and spurred many sequels. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s END OF DAYS came out in 1999, followed by LOST SOULS (2000) and BLESS THE CHILD (2000) which all dealt with end of the world spiritual themes. Soon it becomes very difficult to tell if the end-times topic was popular and the media focused on it or if the media focused on something which then made it popular.


Like with everything though, if there’s an interest somewhere, people are going to build and feed upon that interest. But there’s definitely something more. There is a general sense that big, world-shifting, history-making changes are coming – regardless of 2012 or any other single thing. When you’re watching a movie or a play and the story is progressing you can usually feel when you’re nearing the end of it. Without even looking at your watch, you just know that the credits are coming.


I think this is happening in a global-history sense. If you happen to be familiar with Bible prophecy you know that there are certain signs to look for that signal that we’re in the last days. In Matthew 24, Jesus lists a number of things to look for and warns about being deceived. All of these things are visible today – including a key prophecy about Israel being back in her land. It can be argued that some of the signs (like wars and famines) have been with us for many years but we’re told to not just look for one of these things but ALL of them happening together.


For the first time in history, all of the signs are now visible. Even if you’re not aware of end-times prophecies these same signs do point to bigger changes coming. The conflict in the Middle East is not going away and clearly another war – possibly involving nuclear weapons is on the horizon. (Jack Kinsella’s Omega Letter says that if this were an old-west showdown the two cowboys would be reaching for their weapons!)


We are continuously warned about a coming global pandemic, economic collapse, famines, extreme weather and terrorism. Any one of these things can change our world in a moment. The tragedy of 9/11 proved how quickly that can happen. If we were all watching this at a sport’s stadium I think a lot of people would already be heading for the exits.


- Post by Andre van Heerden, Cloud Ten Pictures’ CEO, Producer and Director