Mike Todd, pastor of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wants to set the record straight on an upcoming movie adaptation of his NYT-bestelling book, Relationship Goals: this is not your typical Christian movie.
“I’m trying to prepare my church right now for the backlash, OK?” Todd told Transformation this week. “We’re making a real movie. Not the Christian, like, ‘I’m going after the lost.’ I want them to be watching rom-coms and find Relationship Goals, and I want it to be real to them where they’re at.
“It’s baked,” he continued. “You can’t clean a fish you ain’t caught. So I’m not making this movie for church people….I’m not making Relationship Goals the movie for you. I want to cast it into the sea where people never come to this church.”
Inspired by his sermon series of the same name, Todd’s book — which he describes as a “guide to finding lasting love and sustaining a healthy relationship” — spent 13 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers’ list. In late 2021, it caught the eye of Breakthrough and Miracles From Heaven producer DeVon Franklin, who announced that he and his team were turning the book into a movie for Amazon. Todd said filming will start this summer.
“They just called me this week and told me they’re starting filming on Relationship Goals the movie in June,” Todd said. “I can’t play with y’all. I’m talking about Amazon is making the movie right now. …The reason they called me is because I told them at the beginning, I said, ‘number one, I want to make a movie movie.’
“But one of the stipulations is that we would be a part of the movie,” he continued. “It wouldn’t be based on the book. So they’re going to come here and shoot scenes at Transformation Church with all the people. Now, I’m telling you all that so y’all don’t act wild. I’m telling you now, months in advance, because there are going to be people — like real actors, like if I start naming them, you’ll be like, yes, it’s a real movie movie.”
