Chattanooga filmmakers gain distribution deal with Angel Studios

‘He Named Him Adam’ is the latest production from Crunch Entertainment

By Gabrielle Nolan

Local filmmakers Marc Aramian and Veronica DiPippo are making headway on their latest project, a pro-life film depicting the true story of Regina Block and her post-abortive journey called He Named Him Adam.

Ms. Block found healing and reconciliation with God after her young daughter shared that she was having dreams about her brother in heaven.

Crunch Entertainment is in production for its latest film, “He Named Him Adam.”

“It’s very much like Unplanned, the same kind of audience, except we have a glimpse of heaven,” Mr. Aramian said. “Those movies are really popular, movies that have heaven and the hope of heaven in them. It’s a story of healing and redemption and her coming back to Christ. So, we think we have a winning combination, and we’re looking for passionate, pro-life people who are going to support us to get this movie made.”

The husband-and-wife duo of Crunch Entertainment shared that their previous crowdfunding campaign was successful, resulting in enough funds to shoot a trailer.

“Veronica pulled 12 scenes from the screenplay, and in two days with a skeleton crew we shot these bunch of scenes and put them together, and then that became the trailer we put on our website. But then we heard about Angel Studios,” Mr. Aramian explained.

In 2023, Angel Studios was listed among the top 10 distributors of movies in America, and some of their biggest distribution projects include The Chosen, The Sound of Freedom, and Cabrini.

“They have a process; it’s a very interesting take on how to distribute movies,” Mr. Aramian said. “They’re the alternative to the big Hollywood gatekeepers. They have subscribers who want good, clean entertainment, a lot of faith-based stuff, and they sell subscriptions. When you buy a subscription, you become a member of their guild. That subscriber base is now over a million people. So, if a filmmaker wants Angel to consider distributing their picture, they put together what they call an Angel torch. They submit it to Angel; Angel gives access to that torch to their subscriber base, and people vote on it.”

After two to three weeks, the score stabilizes, and Angel Studios makes the decision to make a deal or not.

“We got the second or third highest score of all time. People love the torch. The torch is about 8.5 minutes long, whereas the trailer is 3 minutes; it’s like a typical trailer,” Mr. Aramian said.

“Consequently, we got an immediate offer for distribution from Angel,” Ms. DiPippo remarked. “Once we finish the movie, the way Angel Studios works, is the Angel audience will see the movie, and then they’ll get a chance to vote on it again, and then if our score is higher than 85, essentially that triggers a theatrical distribution. … We’re pretty confident that we’re going to be able to get a high score and then achieve a theatrical distribution on the film once it’s done.”

The filmmakers shared that typically an independent film will be made and then in need of a distributor, but since Crunch Entertainment is starting out with a distributor it mitigates the risk for investors who want to help the movie be made.

“We organized our company to sell shares. These are profit-participating equity shares, and we’re fundraising for that now. We’re selling 350 shares of $10,000 each. We’ve just started that process,” Mr. Aramian said.

Another appeal is the all-star cast of the film, which includes the talent of Kelsey Grammer, Vivica Fox, Taryn Manning, and more.

“We’ve had people, old hands n the business, who looked at our pitch and our proposal say this is the best looking, the most likely to succeed of any of the pro-faith movies that have ever been out there,” Mr. Aramian remarked.

Veronica DiPippo and Marc Aramian of Crunch Entertainment check composition and lighting in the monitor on the set of the “He Named Him Adam” trailer.

Originally, there were plans to have the project filmed in Tennessee, but now the project has grown larger than the team envisioned.

“We’re looking at a lot of options, we’re relying on tax incentives from the various states and they’re competing for us to shoot the movie in their state,” Mr. Aramian explained.

“We have been in touch with some of the studios because we are going to need to shoot some of this on sound stages, and shooting on a sound stage will allow us to build sets and move very quickly through certain environments, through certain key locations, and so we have been looking at a variety of sound stages, including places here in Chattanooga and Nashville as well,” Ms. DiPippo added.

The script for He Named Him Adam is finalized, talent is being hired, and the distribution deal is a major milestone for the creation of the film.

“We have a tentative start date, if we can raise the money, Oct. 15,” Mr. Aramian said. “We would go into pre-production six weeks before that. We would start hiring and having meetings with the various key people and the crew, department heads, and so on. A production designer would start designing sets and so on in collaboration with Veronica, who is directing.”

Crunch Entertainment also has received several endorsements from pro-life organizations, such as Deeper Still, Tennessee Right to Life, and Choices, for the film.

“A lot of people are very excited about this movie because they immediately see the value of using it as a tool for not only encouraging women to keep their children because the trend has been of the pro-abortion lobby to use semantics to dehumanize what’s inside the womb,” Ms. DiPippo shared. “They call it now reproductive health care, and of course, taking a child’s life has nothing to do with health care. But they play these semantics games, and one of the goals of this movie is to rehumanize what’s inside the womb. To show a different perspective about an unborn child who was aborted, which this was a child made in God’s image and likeness with a plan and a purpose. And so much so that God actually named this child.”

“I want this movie seen by millions of women; I want it used as a tool for pregnancy resource centers. And I want it also to be used as a tool for women who are suffering from post-abortive stress disorder and to be used as a healing tool as well,” she continued. “This is very much not just a movie, but it’s also a mission.”

Mr. Aramian and Ms. DiPippo first learned of Ms. Block’s story at a Chattanooga March for Life, where Ms. Block gave a speech before the march.

The husband-and-wife duo are known in the diocese for their recent film about Chattanooga priest Father Patrick Ryan, titled Father Ryan: A Higher Call. The docudrama was featured on the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) and was streamed on the FORMED Network.

The couple are members of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga.

For more information on the progress of the film, visit henamedhimadam.com.