A four-year “providence from God” as Daniel Nuckols describes it, has led the Executive Director/Producer of the pending motion picture “More than Conquerors” to Brownwood. Arriving in the fall of 2021, Nuckols and his company Nicol Films took over a portion of a local warehouse, where sets have been constructed and costumes are being designed in preparation for scenes that will be filmed on site in mid-April.

“Back in 2017, I started in on this story concept,” Nuckols, a native of Minnesota, said. “I initially thought it would be an easy project to do because my parents live by a fur trading post up in Minnesota and I thought I would film in up there. It would be an easy logistical thing to do. But in God’s providence, it turned into something so much bigger.”

The “bigger” aspects of the movie included the deck of an English war ship, the admiral’s quarters, and the hull of a slave ship, which follows the along the design Spanish slave ship or a pirate ship, according to Nuckols.

“It’s really kind of miraculous how it all came about,” Nuckols said. “It took some work. I had to move (sets) from down south a couple of hours here to Brownwood. It took a lot of crew and labor to get them off their location they were based in. Then when we got here we had some local help from the town. Sometimes we’d bring loads in here and some volunteers would show up and help us unload.”

The ship’s deck was constructed during the fall, while the admiral’s cabin and the ship hull were built after Thanksgiving. Contractors assisted with the projects.

As for hearing about Brownwood before coming to town, Nuckols said, “I never did. And these sets, I didn’t even know they existed when I first started working on this project. I attribute it to God’s leading and provision. He knew where we needed to be and Brownwood was that place. Through the Lord’s provision this was given to me. The most logical place to build it was in Texas, it just happened that Brownwood was the best of any town here to do that. I was looking at facilities maybe further south, or up north around Dallas, but this is the one that opened up. It really made sense to do it here because there’s a lot of local resources.”

Since arriving in Brownwood almost half a year ago, several local citizens have played a part in guiding “More than Conquerors” a few steps farther down the path toward completion.

“Nick Ewen at HPU, I met him when I came into town,” Nuckols said. “He has a lot of connections in the arts in Brownwood, so he connected me with some student help and with an art grant with the Arts Council. They awarded us one for cast and crew lodging at the Heart of Texas Camp and Retreat.

“Joe Dennis, a retired Air Force Colonel from Rising Star, he and his son Caleb are just tremendous help. They built a lot of these and they went to a location and helped us move it all here. And Dennis Williams and his two sons Justin and John, they were a big help.

Costumers are also on set in Brownwood, preparing outfits for filming which begins in a little over month. The team is led by Deborah Knox.

“Using what we have and using the resources available right now, we’re trying to make it as a close to possible to make it look authentic,” Knox said. “We’re not using authentic fabrics because that would be all linen and wool. We’ve taken all the plastic buttons off things and we’ve been making knots for knot buttons that were used at that time. They also used bones, but we don’t have any bones to cut up.

“We’ve also been learning the history of the costuming and how it evolved through that time period. A lot of people think the pilgrims wore all black and white, but black was actually an extremely expensive color, it took a lot of money to create that color of dye. The pilgrims being puritans and being people that were not trying to show a lot of wealth, they wouldn’t have been wearing black.”

Nuckols said of Knox, “Deborah is really good at historical accuracy and I’ve been impressed at how much knowledge she has on historical costumes down to the last detail. Not only that, she and her team know how to manufacture costumes pretty quick. They’re doing a great job and there’s a lot that goes into it.”

As for the genesis of “More Than Conquerors,” Nuckols said, “I did two short films and I was scrambling after the first short film to find something for my cast and crew to do up in Minnesota. So I dreamed up this story, it came to me after some research in conflicts in Native American history. The story just surfaced, it happened in 1622.”

Nuckols further elaborated:

“It’s a faith based film on Romans 8 and in that chapter Paul talks about being more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ. My goal as a writer and director is to show that the worst that life can throw at you, if you’re in Christ Jesus you can rise above and be more than a conqueror in and through Him. We know Christ Jesus died and he rose again, death couldn’t even defeat Him. He was the ultimate conqueror. He defeated sin, death, disease. If one has faith in Him, you’re more than a conqueror. You may suffer from COVID, there may be wars, there may be riots in the street over racism, but in and through Jesus Christ you can become more than a conqueror and that’s the message we want to spread. There’s hope in Him.

The sub-theme will be the topic of racism where in 1619 some of the first African slaves came to the American colonies. We want to show what it’s like between ethnic people groups and that there can be unity between nations in Christ Jesus. We’re facing war in our world, but in Christ Jesus there can be that peace, but it has to be in Him. It’s not in us. And that’s the heart of the film, where we’re going.

The story is set in 1622 in Jamestown, Virginia colony. The protagonist is a young woman who is going to the new world to be reunited with her father and her mother. There’s an event that happens, a tragedy that just shakes her world where she has to reckon with what suffering is. More than that, we want to show the reality of suffering but also go beyond that and get real answers like why it exists, and how you can be more than a conqueror in it through those events. There’s also a love story where there’s a pastor whose an Irishman who was actually enslaved by the Barbary pirates, so there’s also a theme of slavery and freedom.”

More information about the movie can be found at www.MTCthemovie.com.

Filming in Brownwood for “More Than Conquerors” will take place April 11-16, then filming shifts to Virginia in late October and early November. The film is expected to be distributed in 2023.