1980s Christian hair band movie to film in Columbus

Film crews are once again setting up shop in the Chattahoochee Valley for a new feature film. “Electric Jesus” will be shot in Columbus and the movie’s director wants to get the community involved.

Chris White, the writer, producer and director of “Electric Jesus,” tells News Leader 9 this movie has been in development for a few years.

It’s set in the summer of 1986 and follows a group of teenagers in a Christian hair metal band. They go on the road for the summer and get the chance to open for Stryper, which is a real band.

White describes the movie as a coming of age rock and roll comedy. He says the movie will be set all over the South but will be filmed in Columbus.

White says he learned about Columbus’ growing film industry while attending a film event held by the state of Georgia while he was at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. It’s at that event where White says he met people from Columbus who told him about the Columbus Film Fund.

“You don’t have to bring everybody from Los Angeles or New York or wherever to work on our film. There are people here to work on our film so, we feel like we got here right at the right time where there’s an industry blossoming and blooming here in Columbus,” White explained.

White hopes this movie is something the Chattahoochee Valley community is proud of.

“We want our experience here to make Columbus an even better place for movies so during the filming of ‘Electric Jesus,’ we will be pretty active in the community and encouraging people to participate and follow our progress and we won’t be doing this in secret. We won’t be trying to hide from the public. We do have some kind of cool people coming in to be in the movie and we’re not trying to hide them,” White explained.

During filming, White tells News Leader Nine they will be pretty active in the community and are encouraging the public to participate and follow their progress.

Local folks can head to the “Electric Jesus” website “join the Jeez Team” get information about the movie this summer. They can also follow “Electric Jesus” on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

According to White, they aren’t making any casting announcements just yet, but plan to do so soon.