MOVIES
Cindy Bond: Shining a Light in Hollywood
By Belinda Elliott
CBN.com Daily Life Producer
CBN.com
- Would you like to see more family-friendly films coming out of Hollywood? What about films made from a Christian worldview? Cindy Bond is making that happen.
Bond, the producer of the upcoming film The Ten Commandments, has been quietly working and praying behind the scenes of Hollywood with the goal of producing family-friendly films that will appeal to people of faith.
Her interest in films began early. She was raised in a Christian home by her grandparents, and accepted Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade at age 7. Growing up she enjoyed watching epic films like Carousel, The Robe, The King and I, and Cleopatra. The classic tales started her love of movies.
“Even as a young person I recognized the power that they had,” Bond says, “because the media is the most powerful tool in the world to influence people. And you can influence for good or bad.”
After studying business and drama in college, then spending time as a teaching pro on the professional golf circuit, Bond settled into the field of entertainment and got to work. She felt God calling her to work in the industry though she wasn’t sure in exactly what capacity.
She worked on many different films in various roles, she says, but looking back she believes each one was just another step in God’s preparation for her to be where she is today.
Five years ago, Bond and three other business partners formed Promenade Pictures, a company dedicated to producing family-friendly films. They are currently working on a number of films including the “Epic Stories of the Bible” series of animated films, of which The Ten Commandments is the first, as well as Gideon's Gift based on a Karen Kingsbury novel and also a movie about Salvation Army founder William Booth.
Founding the company was a dream come true, Bond says. When she met business partner Frank Yablans, she knew it was an answer to prayer. Yablans was the co-founder of Buena Vista (formerly Disney). He shared her vision of producing movies that would appeal to families. Together with their other business partners, Charlie Gay and Ron Booth, they have worked to pick up where Disney failed.
Bond describes the company as a modern-day Buena Vista. “But the kind that Walt Disney envisioned, we feel, from the 1950s,” Bond says, “because we feel that Disney went off its brand. They compromised themselves, we feel.”
To keep themselves from having to compromise, she says, the company controls every aspect of its films from financing and development to marketing and distribution. They want to be a company that consumers can trust to consistently offer family-friendly films.
Bond says she feels humbled and honored that God would choose her to be a pioneer of these types of films in the industry. She never imagined herself as the head of a film company.
“I cannot believe what has happened to me. I feel God has given me a pretty extraordinary calling here,” she says.
It’s a calling that she doesn’t take lightly.
“I know that to whom much is given, much is required,” Bond says, “so certainly I’ve been very blessed and led into this industry, but it’s because of how God has worked. I’m definitely a result of Romans 8:28.”
Her journey hasn’t always been easy. Though the entertainment industry is one of the most exciting fields to work in, she says it is also one of the most challenging. Her faith is what keeps her going.
“I can’t imagine actually surviving in Hollywood without being a Christian because without my faith in God I would have left the entertainment industry a long time ago because it’s just too difficult,” Bond says.
She credits God’s daily guidance as the key to her success.
“I’m just somebody who is holding onto the rope of Jesus everyday going, ‘Okay, Lord, just take me on this journey, and lead me, and guide me,’ because it can be very scary out there in Hollywood.”
One way Christians can help her and other companies like hers, Bond says, is to support the movies they make including The Ten Commandments.
“I really need everyone to come out to see the movie in the theaters” she says, “because everybody talks about wanting to see more of these movies, but this is also a financial thing. If these movies are not supported, then it’s just a domino (effect), in a negative way, and then the movies are not going to get made.”
The Ten Commandments opens in theaters Oct. 19. (Enter our contest to win tickets.)
Learn more about the movie and find out where it will be showing at www.10CommadmentsMovie.com. You can also visit www.GodTube.com for advanced ticket sales.
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More articles by Belinda Elliott on CBN.com
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