Richard Dutcher

Richard Alan Dutcher (born 1964) is an American independent filmmaker who produces, writes, directs, edits, and frequently stars in his films.

Dutcher graduated from Brigham Young University in 1988 with a degree in film.

Dutcher was married in 1988 to Gwen, moving to Mapleton, Utah in 1999.

They have seven children together.

Dutcher began work on his first feature film, Girl Crazy, in the early 1990s while living in an apartment in Van Nuys, California.

Girl Crazy is a romantic comedy written by, directed by, and starring Dutcher.

Dutcher raised the budget of the movie (approx US$14,000), then shot it in and near his apartment building.

He later raised more money to finish the movie.

"It was a sweet story and it was fun, but it was such a long process," said Dutcher.

"Probably almost a five-year process before I finally found a distributor."

The movie did not play in theaters but had a brief run in 1997 on HBO and Cinemax.

While the movie did not make enough money to pay off investors, it did begin Dutcher's feature filmmaking career.

Of the movie, Dutcher said:

"I'm never going to spend five years of my life again on something so trivial. But even if you like the movie – and if you do like it a lot, you probably have pretty low expectations – even if you like it, you walk away and say, it was fun, it was 90 minutes of completely disposable fun, and you'd forget about it. Nobody would be thinking about it the next day. And I thought, that's not worth five years of my life. The amount of work and sacrifice and time and risk ... if I'm going to do that again, and I am going to do that again, next time it's going to be for something that means something."

After making God's Army, a successful 2000 movie about LDS missionaries, Dutcher became well known among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Film critic Jeff Vice, of the Deseret News, dubbed Dutcher "The Godfather of Mormon Cinema," a title that is very important personally for Dutcher.

Dutcher's next film was the 2000 indie smash God's Army.

Distributed by Excel Entertainment Group, the movie grossed over ten times its $250,000 production budget.

Dutcher produced, wrote, directed, and starred in this film about Mormon missionaries, focusing on a Mormon elder determined to finish his two-year mission even though he is dying of brain cancer.

The film debuted with a world premiere in Sandy, Utah and was taken on tour around North America for limited engagements, particularly to Mormon audiences, who were eager to see LDS characters portrayed on screen.

The movie received mixed reviews from critics.

The success of God's Army among Mormon audiences is credited (by Dutcher) for launching the LDS Cinema movement of the early to mid-2000s, a small film niche of LDS movies made primarily by and for Mormon audiences.

Dutcher followed this film in 2001 with Brigham City, a movie about the search for a serial murderer in a small Utah town which has never had a murder before.

As with God's Army, Dutcher wrote, directed, and cast himself as the lead, while Excel Entertainment Group distributed the film.

The movie explores how residents of a close-knit religious community, who are mostly LDS, react to and deal with the situation.

Overall, Brigham City garnered better reviews with critics than God's Army, but only grossed $852,206 during its theatrical run, far less than God's Army, despite being made with a much higher budget.

In 2003, Dutcher announced his most ambitious movie project to date: The Prophet, a biopic about the life of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith, based on a screenplay written by Dutcher.

In a press conference held in Utah, Dutcher called the movie "the Mount Everest of Mormon filmmaking" and said that he planned to do "the bulk of the filming" in 2004 for a 2005 theatrical release.

He also announced that both Val Kilmer and F. Murray Abraham had agreed to portray Joseph Smith and Gov. Thomas Ford of Illinois, respectively (depending on schedules).

The budget of the movie was projected at more than $12 million.

The movie was never made.

Dutcher's next film, States of Grace (also titled God's Army 2: States of Grace), was released November 4, 2005.

This film follows a set of missionaries in Los Angeles caught in the middle of gang warfare.

In 2007, Dutcher left the LDS Church.

Dutcher was born in Oak Park, Illinois as Richard Hill.

His family moved frequently, and at age seven his parents divorced.

As a member of the LDS Church, Dutcher served a two-year mission in Mexico.

Dutcher lived in his car during high school and was so financially strapped while attending college that he frequently had to choose between eating and going to the movies.

Because of his love of film, he normally went to the movies.

After 23 years of marriage, they divorced in 2011.