Jim Caviezel Claims Upcoming Film ‘Sound Of Freedom’ Is Outselling ‘Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny’ 3 To 1, Insinuates That Disney Tried To Shut The Film Down
John F. Trent
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Actor Jim Caviezel, who stars in the upcoming film Sound of Freedom recently provided some details about the film and claimed that the film is outselling Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 3 to 1 as well as insinuating that The Walt Disney Company attempted to kill the project while it was in production.
Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard in Sound of Freedom (2023), Angel Studios
Caviezel appeared alongside the film’s producer Eduardo Verástegui, who also stars in the film, on The Drew Mariani Show to discuss the movie where he gave a brief run down about what the film is about.
He said, “The real simple version of this is Tim Ballard, Homeland Security agent, a former CIA, is taking down these big traffickers. He finds one of the worst traffickers at our south border, one of the worst you’ve ever seen, Ernst Lapachinski. They take him down and they find this little boy. The little boy turns to him, and says, 5-year-old boy says, ‘Will you save my sister?'”
“And it burns in his heart,” Caviezel relayed. “He doesn’t know what to do other than talk to his wife. And he sells everything and he goes down to find this one little kid, this one little girl. And that’s essentially the story. It has some Biblical things in the background that you feel, but it’s not something that beats you over the head.”
He then asserted, “It’s one of the best films I’ve done since The Passion of the Christ.”
Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard in Sound of Freedom (2023), Angel Studios
As the interview progressed Mariana revealed some statistics about the illegal human trafficking business, “Human trafficking is a $150 billion a year business. That is staggering. Top destination for human trafficking? The US. We are one of the largest consumers of it, which is really quite tragic. And the fact that there are more humans trapped in slavery today than in any time in human history including when slavery was illegal, that to me was stunning. Millions of these slaves are children.”
He then asked what they thought about what is driving this heinous practice.
Eduardo Verástegui as Paul in Sound of Freedom (2023), Angel Studios
Caviezel answered, “People need to look back from Biblical times. They’ve been doing this for eons. Let’s go back to Pharaoh. Let’s go back to Herod. The difference now is that we have more slaves now than all of history.
Our point is that how can we make this highly entertaining to where everybody wants to see this film. Because the content they’re not interested in. They don’t want to see that, but if you see look at a movie like Taken with a huge heart, that’s essentially what you are looking at here. Artistically done by Alejandro Monteverde.”
Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard and Javier Godino as Jorge in Sound of Freedom (2023), Angel Studios
Caviezel would go on to reveal that while they were shooting the movie his security detail went on a raid to take out a group of human traffickers.
He explained, “We were down there shooting in the middle of the jungle, right where the cartel are. … When we were down there I was like, ‘Hey, my wife is really concerned about me shooting down there.’ And Tim goes, ‘Hey, tell him he’s got a group of Navy SEALs around him and he’ll be good.’ One day I’m looking around, I’m on the phone with my wife. I don’t see anybody around. Because they were on a mission. They saved over 100 kids. They were doing a mission while we were down there.”
Sound of Freedom (2023), Angel Studios
Caviezel went on to share that the film faced headwinds after The Walt Disney Company bought out Fox.
He detailed, “At one point we lost all of our money because Fox got bought out by Disney. So Disney is holding the purse strings here. We lose the film. Eddie goes out and gets us $5 million bucks and saves the movie.”
“You weren’t supposed to see this. This is a movie they do not want you to see,” Caviezel asserted. “And we are fastly selling out our theaters right now and we need the people to call to get more theaters.”
Caviezel would go on to assert that they are “outselling Indiana Jones, right now, 3 to 1.”
Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard in Sound of Freedom (2023), Angel Studios
Caviezel’s comments about The Walt Disney Company echo what Angel Studios President Jordan Harmon said while promoting the film with director Alejandro Monteverde.
Harmon said, “This film has been through the ringer. It was originally done by — Fox was going to be the distributor back in the day.”
After briefly pitching viewers to invest in the P&A for the film, Harmon returned to the story about how the film was shelved by The Walt Disney Company, “Going back to that story, Fox was originally going to distribute it. Then Disney buys Fox and for whatever reason Disney shelves it.”
“And it took you, and your team, and Eduardo a year to basically get the rights back,” he explained.
Harmon would later clarify his comments in an email communication with Bounding Into Comics saying, “To clarify my earlier comment, Disney didn’t distribute Sound of Freedom for reasons unknown to us. We are grateful to be the distributor for this important film.”
Alejandro Monteverde and Jordan Harmon via Angel Studios YouTube
Later in the interview with Mariani, Caviezel said, “We are at a point right now where we are going to lose everything, our republic. We don’t have a south border. We’ll lose everything if people don’t make a move here. And I understand why they feel the way they do. They’re scared. But allow God.”
“And this film does that. This film has the power when you go in, your heart is filled on fire like you were in The Passion, when you watch that movie and it causes you to weep. But there’s a point where you’re not afraid anymore. But certainly our love for God’s children has got to be greater than our fear of evil. Just as our love of Jesus has got to be greater than our fear of the cross.”
“I talk about this all the time, but it’s time. Like 1 James put your faith into action. Faith without works is dead. And this film has the power, for example, these whistleblowers that I worked with, they will watch this. It has the power where they are not afraid anymore to come forward and give true testimony of what is really going on especially when you start going into organ harvesting, which is a whole ‘nother story.”
Sound of Freedom (2023), Angel Studios
When asked if the movie faced resistance from distributors, Verástegui answered, “Many of them passed. And they passed because… It’s very sad what I’m going to tell you, but that’s what happened and that’s what’s true. They saw the movie, ‘Wow! What a great movie. But, you know what, this is not a business for us.’ What do you mean business? This is not about business. This is about an opportunity of saving children. This is an opportunity of raising awareness around the world with this movie and you already make a lot of money with other movies. Not everything is money.
He then detailed, “The doors were closed. And that’s where we need to take either that no as an answer, ‘Okay, let’s give up. That’s it. We don’t care about the children anymore’ or what do we do? We keep fighting. Don’t give up. Keep fighting. Don’t give up.”
“And I can’t believe that after eight years of not giving up from day one all the way until the movie was finished three years ago and all the studios met with us, Amazon, everyone passed. And you know what? I won’t pass. Jim won’t pass. Tim Ballard won’t pass. Alejandro Monteverde won’t pass. And I know the audience won’t pass,” he concluded.
Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard in Sound of Freedom (2023), Angel Studios
The official description for Sound of Freedom states, “Sound of Freedom, based on the incredible true story, shines a light on even the darkest of places. After rescuing a young boy from ruthless child traffickers, a federal agent learns the boy’s sister is still captive and decides to embark on a dangerous mission to save her. With time running out, he quits his job and journeys deep into the Colombian jungle, putting his life on the line to free her from a fate worse than death.”
The film stars Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard. Academy Award Winner Mira Sorvino plays Katherine Ballard and Bill Camp plays “Batman”—Ballard’s right-hand man.
The film arrives in theaters on July 4, 2023.
**Editor’s Note**: This article was updated with a statement from Jordan Harmon clarifying his comments about the film being shelved.
NEXT: Jim Caviezel Provides Update On Mel Gibson’s Sequel to The Passion of the Christ
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