A new movie profiling a famous German theologian who became a spy and took on the Nazi regime during World War II includes the name of a Pinedale, Wyoming, man in its credits.
John Scanlon said he has been involved in the film project “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” for the past 12 years. One of seven producers for the movie, the former Washington, D.C., attorney also has several other film and TV credits to his name.
He is encouraged from the movie’s first weekend at theaters across the country especially with a soaring 93% audience score rating from movie review site Rotten Tomatoes.
“One of the comments we get from the people all the time is, ‘This story feels like it was made for today from the headlines,’” Scanlon said.
He said the Nov. 22 release date for the movie that depicts the young German theologian who rescued Jews from Hitler’s regime, and then being involved in a plot to assassinate the dictator, was deliberately chosen for after the U.S. election.
He also emphasizes the project began 12 years ago.
“It wasn’t made to be directed at any individual or group,” Scanlon said. “If we’d wanted to influence the election, we would have released it before, but it does feel extremely relevant.”
12 Years In The Making
As a producer for the movie, Scanlon said he initially came into the project doing investor relations and legal matters, but that role expanded over time.
He said the film took 12 years to get on the screen due to the challenge of condensing the “rich and full life” of Bonhoeffer’s 39 years into a two-hour screen story.
Fellow producers Emmanuel and Camille Kampouris came to the project after reading The New York Times’ bestselling biography of Bonhoeffer penned by Eric Metaxas in 2009. The film was shot in Ireland and Belgium.
“We went through several writing teams and finally came upon Todd Komarnicki, the writer of ‘Sully’ and producer of ‘Elf’ and other movies that everyone loves,” Scanlon said. “He did a terrific job of nailing the drama and the excitement and the stakes in that story.
“So that was the catalyst for bringing together this amazing cast and crew that we have.”
Actor Jonas Dassler, who plays Bonhoeffer, is German, as are the actors who portray the Bonhoeffer family and leaders in the German church. The film also had cinematographer John Mathieson, responsible for the “Gladiator” movies, and an award-winning set designer named John Beard.
Scanlon said Bonhoeffer’s training at Union Theological Seminary in New York, his friendship with a Black seminarian and time spent at a Harlem Baptist church are surprising to those in the theaters who don’t know Bonhoeffer’s story.
Washington, D.C., Visit
The movie depicts Bonhoeffer visiting Washington, D.C., and becoming educated on the struggle for civil rights with his Black friend, Frank Fisher. There, Bonhoeffer is assaulted by a white hotel clerk for trying to insist that his friend get a room.
Bonhoeffer’s courage to stand and speak out against the Hitler regime and its influence on the German church happened later, but his willingness to pursue truth even while suffering from an oppressor as a seminarian provides an early glimpse of what was to come.
“He came away with this undying commitment to fighting against governments where they are autocratic and evil,” Scanlon said. “Bonhoeffer is just an example of someone who remains committed to his beliefs and to his faith and is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in service of the victims of injustice. And I think that is very relevant and very inspiring.”
The $30 million film release was up against the big studio releases of “Gladiator II” and “Wicked.”
Bonhoeffer came in a respectable fourth place during its first weekend pulling in $5.1 million behind those two films and the “Red One,” a Christmas action comedy starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Scanlon believes the film will do well overall, and that it’s tough to compete with films that have multimillion-dollar promotional campaigns behind them.
“I think we did respectably,” he said. “I think it’s the kind of film people are going to want to see at Thanksgiving. It’s going to make them thankful, and it’s the kind of film you have no qualms seeing with your whole family.”
Move To Wyoming
Scanlon said he arrived in Wyoming in 2021 to become part of a family business in Pinedale that involves turning trash into green fuel.
He spent much of his career as an attorney first at major law firms doing work in securities in Washington, D.C., and later in his own practice which included mergers, acquisitions, partnerships and entertainment law.
Scanlon said his first real film experience came when he went to Uganda to shoot his own project in 2005. After three weeks there, he realized that his film idea was a bust, but as he prepared to leave the country, he received a phone call asking if he had met certain American who moved there.
The caller told him to wait. A short time later, the fellow American pulled up.
His Own Project
The American Phil Leber, also an attorney, and his wife Jennifer had left the U.S. to minister to children in Uganda’s camps for displaced people, which house victims of the nation’s civil war. He would take his guitar into the camps at night and sing in Swahili.
The subsequent 30-minute documentary that Scanlon shot and self-produced called “Sing” was shown on TV in the states.
“I didn’t really know what I was doing, but it seemed to impact a lot of people positively,” he said. “The film stuff really began in earnest after the release of ‘Sing.’”
Another project Scanlon has been involved with has a hoped-for release in 2025. It’s a documentary on famed Pittsburgh Pirates baseball player Roberto Clemente.
The movie was written and directed by a Pittsburgh native and received the Audience Choice Award for Documentary Spotlight at the 2024 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in March.
Scanlon said they are still looking for a distribution deal for the film. He believes the movie, which includes interviews with two of Clemente’s sons, will be fascinating. It also includes author David Maraniss, who wrote a biography on Clemente, and several other celebrity interviews.
“There’s just a tremendous amount of love for the man and a lot of fans out there who grew up watching him play and remember him fondly,” Scanlon said.
A frequent visitor to Wyoming prior to 2021, Scanlon said he and his wife, Heidi, always thought about moving to the area and is grateful the family business, Raven SR, allowed that to happen.
The couple have two children, a daughter who is a screenwriter in Los Angeles, and a son in Fort Collins, Colorado, who is planning to join the military.
As he looks ahead, Scanlon believes there will continue to be opportunities to add to his list of film accomplishments.
“I am already working on a few new projects which unfortunately I can’t talk about,” he said. “I will for sure make more movies.”
Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com
The movie “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” was 12 years in the making. Producer John Scanlon, of Pinedale, was one of seven producers on the project. (Courtesy Angel Studios) 
The movie “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” Includes a German actor Jonas Dassler in the leading role. One of the film’s producer is Pinedale man John Scanlon. (Courtesy Angel Studios) 
The Angel Studios movie on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who became a spy and was arrested by the Nazis is in theaters nationally this past week. One of the producers of the film is Pinedale’s John Scanlon. (Courtesy Angel Studios)
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
