Up close and personal with "Seven Days in Utopia" writer/producer David L. Cook

By Cheryl Wicker

Cheryl Wicker talks to author, speaker and executive producer David L. Cook about how God directed him all along the way on his foray into filmmaking and how he encourages other filmmakers to listen for God’s inspiration in their own filmmaking journey. Cook is the chairman of Utopia Films and executive producer of "Seven Days in Utopia," which opened in theaters on September 2, 2011, and stars Robert Duvall and Lucas Black.

He is also the author of "Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia," upon which the movie was based.

Cheryl Wicker: Tell me how you got started writing. How did the whole thing start?

David Cook: We, we have a ranch in Utopia, Texas, and I was doing a retreat for some men down there, as well as trying to figure out what I was going to write about and to speak about with them. When I was out praying in the field, I walked out to the field and went by the seed den. I opened a lid and there was a seed there planted 75 years before and it really struck me that that seed was wasted. I knew that there probably were some men and women that I administer to that had the same issue, of knowing they got called to do something but they just hadn't figured out what it was.So I brought a group of people in and taught around that seed concept, and passed them all one night around a campfire and asked them what that seed meant planted and what it meant. When I did, I felt the Lord said, "I called you to write."

So I wrote this book. it's the only book I've ever written and a few weeks later in a cafe in Utopia, there was a little note that gave the directions to the Utopia driving range, which was a very unusual message in the cafe because it went out to a golf course within 60 miles. I went out to discover that this driving range was next to a cemetery, and it was a really pathetic driving range. But this is where God said, "this is the place to write the book," so I had a context for how to write the story. I went back to the ranch and sat down. My fingers got on the computer and it just exploded... that was a supernatural, interesting experience all around. God came out with a message even though it came out through a sort of insignificant looking little 156-page golf book, performance book. It sort of transcends that and touches people of all flocks, faiths and interests. A director read that book and said he'd like to make a movie out of it. So we worked together, created the screenplay together and taught me about screenplay writing. I worked on it with him and another screenplay writer, and we put it together. It took about two years to just write.

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