The brand new feel-good movie The Secret: Dare to Dream has raced to the top of the Premium Video on Demand charts, destined to be a family favorite for years to come.
Creator of The Secret, Rhonda Byrne, who was on set during filming on location in Louisiana, reveals, “I think The Secret team always knew there would be a movie, at some point, beyond the documentary. We just didn’t know yet what shape that film would take.”
Executive Producer and author of The Power of Henry’s Imagination, Skye Byrne, says, “Interestingly this wasn’t always going to be a family movie. Initially, we were thinking of other genres, like fantasy and even comedy, but for some reason, a traditional family movie just didn’t occur to us. It’s odd in hindsight because family is so incredibly important to all of us at The Secret! But after we met with the wonderfully talented writer Bekah Brunstetter, and she pitched a story about a struggling family who is introduced to The Secret by a mysterious stranger, we fell in love on the spot. We knew we’d found the right story for our Secret movie and we knew we’d found the perfect scriptwriter in Bekah.”
Bekah says, “From the get-go, (producer) Robert Cort and Rhonda Byrne trusted and believed in the script, the world of ideas, and my characters. It started small, with a story about a family struggling to make ends meet and to find joy after loss. As I developed the script with Robert and Rhonda, The Secret’s message became even more clear and applicable not just to the characters, but to other areas of my life.”
Bekah has since gone on to become a writer in high demand in Hollywood. She has served successful long-term stints on the hit family drama series’, “Switched At Birth” and “This Is Us.” As she says, “I’m all about putting positive, life-affirming, family stories into the world right now. And I’m so grateful that I got to be a part of this movie.”
Making a Feel-Good Movie
For producer and financier, Joe Gelchion, it was Bekah’s screenplay that first captured his attention. Joe says, “People have wanted to turn this powerful book into a film for a long time. It took this team to finally crack the story and transform this book (that spent 192 consecutive weeks on the New York Times best-seller list) into a wonderful screenplay. I fell in love with every aspect of the script and we decided to make a wonderful feel-good movie.”
According to Joe, The Secret: Dare to Dream perfectly aligns with his vision as a filmmaker. He says, “We want to tell stories that inspire and ones that carry a message of hope. I really whole-heartedly believe families will come out (of this movie) feeling better about themselves.”
Producer Robert Cort says, “Our filmmakers have created a compelling family love story that embodies the principles of The Secret.” Robert’s stated intention was: “To make a film as funny and endearing as its message is hopeful.”
Director Andy Tennant concurs: “This is a very, very uplifting movie. It’s a joyful film,” he says. “I think our film captures what it’s like to have a family. And that really spoke to why I wanted to make the movie. For me, it was about a realistic representation of the day-to-day struggles of everyday Americans — ordinary single parents, everyday families.”
Casting for a Family Movie
Andy Tennant describes how the cast came together for this feel-good family movie. “Robert Cort told me that he thought somebody like Katie (Holmes) would be perfect. When I met with Katie, one of the things that we talked about was what if this movie could capture what it was like to be a single mom. And I think that with Katie, it feels like she’s really come into her own as a woman, as a mother, and as an artist. I feel like I’ve lucked out in that I think I’ve got the right actress for the right role at the right time.”
Katie’s co-star, Josh Lucas, was drawn to the movie for similar reasons: “I get the feeling that with both Katie and myself, that our being parents and being people that have been through struggles, through career ups and downs and through life’s ups and downs — all of it. This movie, and this idea, this story has come to us at a very precise time.”
For Katie, the opportunity to play mom to such a young cast brought with it a lot of joy. As she says. “The kids have been wonderful and really have brought so much joy to this film. They’re really talented, and nice kids, great to be around, and I’ve learned a lot from them. And, you know, they have such wonderful instincts. It’s just fun.”
On the Set of a Feel-Good Movie
Paul Harrington, Executive Producer and author of The Secret to Teen Power, also observed the real joy behind the scenes: “When Rhonda Byrne and I visited on location, the first thing I noticed was the tremendous energy on set. The young actors were running around in between takes playing football with the crew. It was a riot. I’ve been on set for quite a number of productions but this was different. I’d never experienced the level of joy, camaraderie, and the feeling of family as I did for those days in Louisiana.”
Rhonda Byrne agrees: “The Secret: Dare to Dream was a true family movie both on-screen and off. From the warm welcome we received, to the bear-hugs from so many members of the crew, to bonding between takes with the mothers of the young actors, who it turns out, are all big Secret fans.”
Even the main location, the setting of the Wells family’s home, added to the wonderful sense of family that comes across in The Secret: Dare to Dream. The owner, Kim Vinson, grew up in this very home that her parents purchased when she was six months old. Later, she met and married her husband on the grounds, and went on to raise her children and grandchildren here. But it was her earlier family history that seemed to align almost magically with the storyline of the movie.
As producer Joe Gelchion was describing the story to Kim, tears flowed down her cheeks.
“It seemed to me he was telling my life story,” she says. “It brought me back to my childhood. As the movie filmed, more and more similarities unfolded.”
A Real-Life Family Movie
Just like the Wells family in the movie, the middle child in Kim’s family was named Greg. And just like the movie family, Kim and her brothers lost their father when they were very young. For the Wells children, their father died in a plane crash, whereas Kim’s father was a pilot who died of a sudden, undiagnosed health problem. As Kim remembers, “Like Miranda, my mom found herself raising three young children on her own. Her family, who were all in Arkansas, begged her to return to Arkansas to raise her children. My mom would not hear of it. We remained here. These were some difficult times. My mom tried her best to keep everything in order but it was hard. She was sad and lonely. The house appears in the movie as it often looked in those days, in disrepair. Nevertheless, my mom hung onto it.”
One last fascinating instance of the law of attraction at work occurred for Kim on a day when she had invited a lifelong friend to set. On this day, the crew was filming the scene where the youngest Wells child Bess is pining for a pony. Kim and her best friend stared at each other in complete disbelief. As she explains, “On my eighth birthday, my parents threw me a party, which my friend attended. I had asked for a Bible and a pony. I opened the first present from my parents which was my Bible. The second present came walking around the side of the house!”
And while all of these remarkable similarities in Kim’s life might seem like a wonderful coincidence, true fans of The Secret will recognize this as part of the great magic of the law of attraction.
The law of attraction for families
Rhonda Byrne says: “As a family movie, we couldn’t have hoped for a better way to introduce the principles of The Secret and the law of attraction to families everywhere. My dream is that people will go on to learn how to manifest their desires, to be, do, and have anything they want, and to make all of their dreams come true.”
Here are the books and films mentioned in this post:
