World Wide Pictures

== History ==
WWP was established in 1951 after Graham met Dick Ross, who had produced a [[documentary film]] of Graham's 1950 crusade in [[Portland, Oregon]].<ref> John Lyden, ''The Routledge Companion to Religion and Film'', Taylor & Francis, Abingdon-on-Thames, 2009, p. 82 </ref> That film's success led the BGEA to buy Ross's production company and hire him as the president of a new BGEA subsidiary incorporated as the ''Billy Graham Evangelistic Film Ministry'' (which was to be WWP's official name until 1980).

WWP's first [[feature film]] was ''[[Mr. Texas (film)|Mr. Texas]]'', produced during Graham's 1951 [[Fort Worth, Texas]] Crusade. It was also during the 1950s that WWP established production facilities in [[Burbank, California]].

Perhaps WWP's best-known production was the 1965 film ''The Restless Ones'', featuring [[Kim Darby]]. It was the first theatrical movie.<ref>{{Cite journal | author = Peter T. Chattaway | title = Billy Graham Goes to the Movies | url = http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2005/08/billy-graham-goes-to-the-movies.html | journal = patheos.com | date = August 23, 2005 | access-date = 2013-08-01}}</ref> According to an October 14, 1966, issue of ''[[Christianity Today]]'' more than 120,000 professions of faith were recorded after more than two million people viewed the film. Other feature films included ''[[Two a Penny]]'' (also 1965), which starred [[Cliff Richard]]. Both ''[[The Hiding Place (film)|The Hiding Place]]'' (1975, with [[Julie Harris (American actress)|Julie Harris]]) and ''Time to Run'' (1973) received [[Golden Globe]] nominations for Most Promising Newcomer.

WWP stopped national releases of its films in the late 1980s. The company sold its Burbank studio, [[Companies based in Minneapolis-St. Paul|moved its headquarters to Minneapolis]], and switched to working with independent producers and distributing films to churches, on home video, and as [[Television movie|made-for-TV movies]].

They cautiously returned to feature films in 2001 with the limited national release of ''Road to Redemption'', WWP's first comedy after over 125 films. The film starred [[Pat Hingle]]. It was followed by ''[[The Climb (2002 film)|The Climb]]'', which starred [[Jason Winston George]], [[Ned Vaughn]], and [[Dabney Coleman]], and featured [[Todd Bridges]]. In 2003, the company released ''Last Flight Out''.