A psychiatrist seeks to cure three paranoid schizophrenic patients in Director Jon Avnet’s drama, Three Christs.
Avnet’s film tells the extraordinary true story of how in 1959, Dr. Alan Stone (Richard Gere) — armed with the radical belief that schizophrenic patients should be treated not with confinement and electroshock therapy but with empathy and understanding — took on the challenging case of Joseph (Peter Dinklage), Leon (Walton Goggins) and Clyde (Bradley Whitford), three patients at the Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan who each believe they are Jesus Christ.
Following the DGA membership screening in New York on January 4, Avnet sat down with Director Cary Murnion (Bushwick [co-directed with Jonathan Milott]) to discuss the making of Three Christs. He also discussed the film in a conversation moderated by Director Rodrigo García (Four Good Days) following the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles on January 19.
In addition to Three Christs, Avnet’s directorial credits include the feature films Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes, Up Close & Personal and Fried Green Tomatoes; the movies for television Have a Little Faith, Bunker Hill and Between Two Women; and episodes of Sneaky Pete, Justified, Boomtown and Call to Glory. He was nominated for the 2001 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Miniseries for Uprising and again in that same category for his 2007 mini-series The Starter Wife. A DGA member since 1984, Avnet currently serves as a member of the DGA National Board and as the Co-Chair of the DGA Negotiating Committee alongside Director Todd Holland.
You can listen to Avnet's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.