"We've had long meetings about the script," said Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the church's First Quorum of the Seventy and executive director of the Church Audiovisual Department. "Members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve have taken a very personal role to be comfortable with the way the life of Joseph is portrayed."

Munns called the script "a labor of love but a real labor. It stood up to a lot of scrutiny." The scrutiny was time-consuming but necessary.

"A film never really gets better than its script," he said. "It is doctrinally sound, historically accurate and very appealing, very engaging. Hopefully people will learn some things and feel some things and like it."

Shooting began Oct. 1. Filming for fall will end this week. A winter unit will resume shooting in December. After spring and summer scenes are completed in June, the project will be turned over to editors and composers.

The church began showing free films in the Legacy Theatre of the renovated Joseph Smith Memorial Building in July 1993. Nearly 5 million people watched the first film, "Legacy," which recounted the early history of the church through a fictitious pioneer family.

Legacy was replaced in March 2000 by "The Testaments: Of One Fold and One Shepherd."

Elder Hallstrom said "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" will replace "The Testaments," which likely will follow "Legacy" to DVD and video after a waiting period.

The church hasn't discussed the budget for "Joseph Smith," but Elder Hallstrom said, "It'll be a major production in the realm of what 'Legacy' and 'Testaments' have been."

He said the deadline won't be the first priority.

"The quality of the film is the most significant aspect for us," Elder Hallstrom said. "We have every hope it'll be done by December 2005 in a way and manner acceptable to us."

That manner will include some of Joseph Smith's difficult moments, including primitive leg surgery when he was 7.

"We think this film will appeal to those not of our faith," Munns said. "We hope this will help them to appreciate this great man, the challenges he overcame and the church he organized, to see him as a man and not just a prophet."

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