{"id":29397,"date":"2023-06-07T14:18:32","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T18:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=29397"},"modified":"2023-06-07T14:18:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T18:18:32","slug":"christian-hitmaker-devon-franklin-is-flamin-hot-with-a-new-movie-streaming-on-hulu-and-disney-a-hit-bet-tv-series-and-more-projects-in-the-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2023\/06\/christian-hitmaker-devon-franklin-is-flamin-hot-with-a-new-movie-streaming-on-hulu-and-disney-a-hit-bet-tv-series-and-more-projects-in-the-pipeline.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian hitmaker DeVon Franklin is &#8220;Flamin&#8217; Hot&#8221; with a new movie streaming on Hulu and Disney+, a hit BET TV series and more projects in the pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 06\/07\/23<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><iframe title=\"Flamin&#039; Hot | Official Trailer | Hulu\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o0yuVHT82Bg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Producer DeVon Franklin is as hot as a Flamin&#8217; Hot Cheeto &#8211; and that&#8217;s sayin&#8217; somethin&#8217;. <\/strong>So, it seems appropriate that his newest feature film <strong><em>Flamin&#8217; Hot<\/em> (dropping this Friday (6\/9) on Disney+ and Hulu)<\/strong> offers the inspirational account of <strong>Richard Monta\u00f1ez <\/strong>(played by<strong> Jesse Garcia<\/strong>), the Mexican American <strong>Frito-Lay<\/strong> janitor said to have come up with the idea for <strong>Flamin\u2019 Hot Cheetos<\/strong> which went on to become a global pop culture phenomenon.<\/p>\n<p>The openly Christian filmmaker, who is also a bestselling author and in-demand motivational speaker, is known in the industry for delivering a long string of hit inspirational films going all the way back to 2006&#8217;s <strong><em>The Pursuit of Happynes<\/em>s<\/strong> and 2014&#8217;s <em><strong>Heaven is for Real<\/strong> <\/em>through 2016&#8217;s <strong><em>Miracles from Heaven<\/em> <\/strong>and 2019&#8217;s animated Christmas film <strong><em>The Star<\/em><\/strong> (the latter two films under his own <strong>Franklin Entertainment<\/strong> production banner). On television his gospel music-themed drama <em><strong>Kingdom Business<\/strong><\/em> has just finished production for a second season on<strong> BET<\/strong>. Other BET projects in the pipeline include a funeral home-set family drama called<em><strong> Closure<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>Played<\/strong><\/em><strong>,<\/strong> a sitcom on which he&#8217;ll actually co-star as a single guy&#8217;s conscience. Also in the\u00a0 works are a coast guard drama in development for <strong>CBS<\/strong> and a long-anticipated movie reboot of the multimedia fantasy franchise <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Masters_of_the_Universe\"><em><strong>Masters of the Universe <\/strong><\/em><\/a>currently planned for a 2024 release.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: Hi, DeVon, how are you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DeVon Franklin: <\/strong>I&#8217;m doing great! How are you?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: I&#8217;m good, thank you. I&#8217;m actually a big fan of your work. I think you do a great job at bridging the so-called divide between faith audiences and general audiences. I&#8217;d like to get your thoughts on that briefly. You have said &#8220;The faith-based audience is much bigger and much more diverse than Hollywood understands &#8211; and the faith-based audience is the same audience that&#8217;s going to see all of your big tentpole films and all your animated movies.&#8221; Can you elaborate on that? Has the industry drawn a fake line between the faith audience and the general audience?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF:<\/strong> Yeah, you know, I think that the faith audience is the same audience that&#8217;s powering the success of <strong>Disney+<\/strong>, the <strong>Marvel<\/strong> films and so many other family films (like) the <strong>Pixar<\/strong> movies and whatnot. I think that sometimes there is this kind of arbitrary line that&#8217;s created between the two audiences. What I try to remind Hollywood is that this audience likes all types of films &#8211; (especially) films they can watch with their family. They love great entertainment. They love things that are uplifting, inspirational<em> and<\/em> aspirational. It&#8217;s something that I&#8217;m continuously ringing the bell on and fighting the good fight. Movies like<em> Flamin&#8217; Hot<\/em> just make the case that there is an audience out there that wants movies that can be uplifting, aspirational, spiritual and inspirational, as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: What drew you to this particular story?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF:<\/strong> I just thought it was amazing! I couldn&#8217;t believe it! I was like &#8220;Whoa, this is true?!&#8221; When I met with Richard Monta\u00f1ez about six or seven years ago, he just sat down in my office and told me his story about starting as a janitor working for Frito-Lay at Rancho Cucamonga, having this idea for spicy product and then being given the opportunity to go and market the product as <em>he<\/em> saw it. He said &#8220;Hey, if we could just take this product and market it to my community it will help save the factory.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So, his vision to do that turned into what we now know as Flamin&#8217; Hot Cheetos which is a cultural icon, a juggernaut and a billion-dollar brand. It just blows my mind! When I heard it I said I couldn&#8217;t believe this is true &#8211; that a product that you think is just kinda trivial &#8211; like Flamin&#8217; Hot Cheetos &#8211; actually has an inspirational story behind it. It was so unique that I said that&#8217;s the movie that I want to make. In that meeting I gave him my word that we would get the movie done and I&#8217;m grateful that we have.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve heard &#8211; I mean it&#8217;s out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/food\/article\/flamin-hot-movie-17843954.php\">in the media<\/a> &#8211; that there&#8217;s been some questions raised from former Frito-Lay employees about whether Richard came up with the idea himself. Do you have any comment on that?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF:<\/strong> Yeah. The movie articulates and shows how it all worked together. We don&#8217;t hide anything. We don&#8217;t pull any punches. When you see the film you see &#8220;Oh, okay, I see how Richard did what he did, I see how the company was doing what they were doing and then you see where these two story lines meet and where, ultimately, Richard&#8217;s marketing genius directly contributed to the success of the product. So, I&#8217;m grateful that we could make a movie to set the record straight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: What was it like to work with Richard?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF:<\/strong> Awesome! He&#8217;s an inspiration. Every time you talk with him he&#8217;s got a great word of encouragement. He&#8217;s always so positive. He&#8217;s someone that I value having in my life through this process because he&#8217;s someone that always has the positive word. He reminds me of what matters the most. He&#8217;s always forward thinking. It&#8217;s just been a real joy to work with him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: And the movie is directed by Eva Longoria.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: How did it come about that you brought her on and what was it like working with her?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>I was looking for a director. So, I sent the script out and I took about 12 director meetings. I believe &#8211; and I&#8217;ve always believed &#8211; that if you commit to the process that the director is gonna show up. So, you know, I met with Eva. She came into the meeting and as she started talking about the script I just said &#8220;Wow! I think this is our director.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now, I knew that she had never directed a movie before. She had directed a lot of television episodes but never a movie &#8211; but I didn&#8217;t let that deter me. I believed (in) the way that she was talking about the film &#8211; her vision for the film.\u00a0 I just said &#8220;This is the movie that I want to make and I believe you&#8217;re the best person to make this movie.&#8221; So, her and I partnered up &#8211; from that moment to this &#8211; to\u00a0 bring this movie to the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: In the process did you eat a lot of Flamin&#8217; Hot Cheetos?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>Too many! Yes! The answer is yes! You know, before I started developing the script I actually had never had a Flamin&#8217; Hot Cheeto but then once I started developing it I said &#8220;I better try this so I know what I&#8217;m talking about.&#8221; To my surprise they are as habit forming as you would think! So, I do my best to have a restriction on my Flamin&#8217; Hots. They even have some baked ones. So, usually, if I&#8217;m gonna do it, I do the baked ones so I don&#8217;t feel too bad about goin&#8217; in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: What do you hope people take from the story?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>I want people to take hope. I mean this is a real story. This is a true-life hero. I know that audiences around the world are obsessed with Marvel and all these other superhero movies and that&#8217;s great. There&#8217;s nothing wrong with that but they&#8217;re all fake. It&#8217;s all made up. It&#8217;s all make-believe but Richard Monta\u00f1ez is a real hero. Anyone watching the film can do what he did in their own way.<\/p>\n<p>So, my hope is that people take away hope, they take away inspiration and they also take away that love wins and that love is powerful. The movie has a powerful love story between Richard and (his wife) <strong>Judy <\/strong>that will really connect to audiences. So, I want people when they&#8217;re finished watching this film to be inspired, to have hope and to commit to love.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: You&#8217;ve done several true-life stories in your career. Are you attracted to those?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>Yeah, I am attracted to the true-life story. One of the main reasons is because of what I was mentioning &#8211; that, you know, it&#8217;s cool to make something fictional that people connect to. That&#8217;s cool. There&#8217;s nothing wrong with that &#8211; yet I think there&#8217;s a different impact when you&#8217;re watching a film that&#8217;s based upon somebody who really did what you&#8217;re watching.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m from the Bay Area. I&#8217;m the middle child of three boys. I grew up in a very, very humble upbringing. My father died when I was young. Movies and going to church really got me through. I was just so captivated by entertainment (that) I just said &#8220;I gotta be a part of this industry that has helped me because I just want to help others with it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So, you know, it definitely speaks to me. I think audiences will connect to that because movies like this give you the opportunity to see what&#8217;s possible and what you can apply to your life. Going back to the superhero thing, no matter how hard you try, you can&#8217;t put on a suit and run through your city faster than the speed of lightning. It&#8217;s not gonna work &#8211; but you can have an idea like Richard. You can have a vision like Richard. You can have tenacity like Richard. You can have perseverance like Richard, And you can succeed like Richard. So, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m connected to. That&#8217;s why I love true stories and this is one that I&#8217;m very proud of.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: Maybe you can do a movie where somebody eats a radioactive Flamin&#8217; Hot Cheeto and gets superpowers.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>Hey, if it&#8217;s true and it&#8217;s good, you never know! Don&#8217;t put it past me. I might just do it!<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: You also do a lot of television, including <em>Kingdom Business<\/em> on BET which is a drama series set in the world of gospel music. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"BET+ Original | Kingdom Business Trailer Featuring Yolanda Adams &amp; Serayah\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0nMUOrrMKxE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: What&#8217;s the difference between doing movies and doing a television series?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>With television every episode is like a mini-movie. With <em>Kingdom Business<\/em>, we&#8217;ve done 16 episodes so far. So, literally, it&#8217;s like 16 different movies. TV is like you&#8217;re shooting one episode while you&#8217;re prepping another episode and then you&#8217;re editing that episode while you&#8217;re shooting an episode while you&#8217;re prepping another episode. So, the world of television is much more intense in my experience than film&#8230;You know, we shot<em> Flamin&#8217; Hot<\/em> over 35 days. In movie time that&#8217;s about six or seven weeks&#8230;Whereas in 14 days we shot two episodes of <em>Kingdom Business<\/em>. So, the pace is just much more rigorous but being a filmmaker, I think, has helped me make better television.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: Also for BET, you have an upcoming sitcom that you&#8217;re gonna star in. Am I correct about that?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>Yes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: And recently you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DgLOygAiUTg\">acted in the film <em>Jesus Revolution<\/em><\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>Yes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: So, are you developing a taste for acting?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>I think so &#8211; and I think acting is developing a taste for me &#8211; which is cool! It was never something that I was planning for or dreaming about. It&#8217;s just something that has found me and I really enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p>First of all, to be in <em>Jesus Revolution<\/em> is amazing. I mean that movie is incredible. It&#8217;s touched lives all over the world. It&#8217;s the biggest box office success this year for an inspirational true film. To be a part of it truly is just a miracle and an answer to prayer. And then to be able to do other roles. You know, I just finished a role in <em>Kingdom Business<\/em> for Season 2. I also just another film which will be out this year. So, you know, I love acting and excited to continue to do more of it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: This&#8217;ll be my last question. You wrote a book called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hollywood-Commandments-Spiritual-Secular-Success\/dp\/0062684256\"><em>The Commandments of Hollywood: A Spiritual Guide to Secular Success<\/em><\/a> where you deal with the issue of people of faith sometimes having a conflict with the idea of success. Have you dealt with that yourself &#8211; and what is your advice for people of faith who may feel like it&#8217;s almost a sin to be successful?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>Of course, I&#8217;ve dealt with that myself (but) what I&#8217;ve dealt with is certainly not the issue of feeling like it&#8217;s a sin to be successful. What I&#8217;ve dealt with is how to have the faith required for success at times when things are not going the way that I would like them to go and situations are working out the opposite way that I would want. It&#8217;s in those moments when I&#8217;ve had to really look at myself&#8230;and assess my faith. In those moments, that&#8217;s when I&#8217;ve been looking to honestly refill my faith. (That&#8217;s why) so much of what I do &#8211; no matter what the story is (deals with faith). Even with <em>Flamin&#8217; Hot, <\/em>there&#8217;s a strong faith through line in that film because I do believe that faith works and, when we use it, it is our real superpower. So, for me, in my life, I can only make a movie about it because I&#8217;ve had to live it. That&#8217;s why I wrote the book <em>The Hollywood Commandments<\/em> &#8211; to give any reader the tips and tools that they need to navigate life successfully without losing faith.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: Fantastic. It was a pleasure talking with you.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>Great talking with you too. Thank you so much.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: And good luck with the film.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DF: <\/strong>Thank you. I appreciate that.<\/p>\n<p><em>John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God. <\/em><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong><em><span class=\"st\">Encourage one another and build each other up &#8211; <\/span><\/em><span class=\"st\">1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 06\/07\/23 Producer DeVon Franklin is as hot as a Flamin&#8217; Hot Cheeto &#8211; and that&#8217;s sayin&#8217; somethin&#8217;. So, it seems appropriate that his newest feature film Flamin&#8217; Hot (dropping this Friday (6\/9) on Disney+ and Hulu) offers the inspirational account of Richard Monta\u00f1ez (played&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christian hitmaker DeVon Franklin is &quot;Flamin&#039; Hot&quot; with a new movie streaming on Hulu and Disney+, a hit BET TV series and more projects in the pipeline<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2023\/06\/christian-hitmaker-devon-franklin-is-flamin-hot-with-a-new-movie-streaming-on-hulu-and-disney-a-hit-bet-tv-series-and-more-projects-in-the-pipeline.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian hitmaker DeVon Franklin is &quot;Flamin&#039; Hot&quot; with a new movie streaming on Hulu and Disney+, a hit BET TV series and more projects in the pipeline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 06\/07\/23 Producer DeVon Franklin is as hot as a Flamin&#8217; Hot Cheeto &#8211; and that&#8217;s sayin&#8217; somethin&#8217;. So, it seems appropriate that his newest feature film Flamin&#8217; Hot (dropping this Friday (6\/9) on Disney+ and Hulu) offers the inspirational account of Richard Monta\u00f1ez (played&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2023\/06\/christian-hitmaker-devon-franklin-is-flamin-hot-with-a-new-movie-streaming-on-hulu-and-disney-a-hit-bet-tv-series-and-more-projects-in-the-pipeline.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-07T18:18:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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So, it seems appropriate that his newest feature film Flamin&#8217; Hot (dropping this Friday (6\/9) on Disney+ and Hulu) offers the inspirational account of Richard Monta\u00f1ez (played&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2023\/06\/christian-hitmaker-devon-franklin-is-flamin-hot-with-a-new-movie-streaming-on-hulu-and-disney-a-hit-bet-tv-series-and-more-projects-in-the-pipeline.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2023-06-07T18:18:32+00:00","author":"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29397"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29637,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29397\/revisions\/29637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}