Over the years, we have had numerous movies based on mixed martial arts, but little did we know that we’ll be getting a movie where Jesus Christ will be portrayed as a fighter. Yes, folks! There’s another movie based on MMA coming up in just a few days’ time, named ‘The Carpenter’ and in this article, we’ll try to know everything about the reported $3 million flick.

‘The Carpenter’ isn’t your average Hollywood flick. It’s an independent movie, but the director is a rather well-known, Garrett Batty, who’s worked on multiple critically acclaimed projects. He has won three each of the Utah Film Awards and the Ghana Film Awards. Batty also won third place for Best Feature Film at the Zions Indie Film Festival in 2023 (all stats per IMDb). But what is the story behind this movie? Well, let’s check that out.

The story behind ‘The Carpenter’

In the unincorporated community of St. Johns in Florida, Kenny Krebs, and his son Kameron were building a shed in the backyard of their residence. This was years ago, by the way, and the father-son duo realized how hard-working a carpenter really is. They wondered how it would have been if they could have learned carpentry from Jesus Christ, who is believed to have been a carpenter himself. “Someone should make a movie about that,” the father-son duo said to each other, and that’s what they decided to do. Almost a decade later, Kenny Krabs and his son Kameron saved up a sum of $3 million and decided to venture into the movie business despite having no clue about it.

“Almost a decade ago, my dad and I were building a shed when we came up with the idea for the film,” Kameron Krebs said. “We were talking about how much perfection goes into the craft, and we ultimately began discussing what a perfect occupation carpentry was for Jesus. That made us wonder what it would be like to work under his tutelage as an apprentice, and from there, the film was born.”

Stepping into the role of an MMA fighter, even for a historical fiction movie was no easy feat. Kameron had to put in the hard miles for this one. “There’s a UFC gym that I was able to train at for about 6 months before shooting [the movie]… And [I] did a lot of studying of Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu, kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, and this is a lot of hours in the gym…a lot of ice baths.”

The road was not easy for the family at all. Kameron’s newborn son succumbed to cancer seven years ago and later Kenny developed colon cancer. He had eight surgeries and missed the shoot in South Africa as he was having a tumor taken out. These trying times only made the effort behind the move all the more meaningful for the Krebs. “It’s basically for encouragement,” Kenny said. “[For] when you’re down or troubled or when tragedies occur in your life, how you find strength.”

However, they did make sure to hire the right director for the job. Now, let’s see what the movie is all about.

Cast, plot, and everything about the $3 million budget movie

The storyline of ‘The Carpenter’ centers on a Viking orphan who is adopted, and takes on the role of a carpenter’s apprentice to Yeshua (Jesus in Hebrew). The orphan, Oren, takes up a side hustle as an MMA-style fighter, but the changes he witnesses in his life after training as a carpenter under the guidance of Yeshua turn out to be rather profound.

$3 million may not look enough for a movie budget in 2024, but Kenny Krebs tried to make the movie seem as real as possible. They shot the entire film in South Africa, with the story set in Jerusalem.

Well, there’s no Dana White or any UFC fighter on the cast as the MMA fighter-cum-carpenter’s apprentice role was dawned by none other than Kenny’s son, Kameron Krebs, and the movie is due to release on 1 November 2024. Even Kenny’s other son, Kaulin, is also one of the stars in the movie and plays the role of Levi, Oren’s MMA trainer. “We made the movie as…my testimony to my kids and my grandkids about what’s important in life. But it turned out better than we thought,”,” the patriarch of the Krebs household stated as reported by ‘News4Jax’.

It remains to be seen how the movie turns out as MMA fans might take an interest in checking ‘The Carpenter’ out when it drops. Let us know your thoughts about the movie as well.