With an $8 million budget, "The Work and the Glory" is the most expensive independent local movie ever made. And the risk is not lost on the filmmakers.

"That might not sound like a lot of money, especially when you're talking about $100 million budgets for major Hollywood movies," said producer Scott Swofford, "but for us, this constitutes a major investment."

He quickly added that it was necessary, however — the "bare minimum" for which a quality period film of this magnitude could be made.

Local audiences will be able to judge for themselves beginning Wednesday, when the film opens around the state.

"Obviously, a budget of a million dollars is the financial scenario under which you're going to be successful and make your money back," Swofford said. "But if we made this picture for a million dollars, people would be burning the book in the streets, and us in effigy. So it really had to be a larger film, epic in nature, and it had to look incredible."

Fortunately, Swofford and screenwriter/director Russ Holt (best known for the 1987 LDS Church film "How Rare a Possession") had a patron saint of sorts, in the person of local businessman/entrepreneur Larry H. Miller, who agreed to serve as executive producer and foot most of the bills.

Miller said he is optimistic that the movie will be a success. In fact, some pre-production work is already being done on a second movie in the "Work and the Glory" series, with an eye toward making as many as half-a-dozen movies in all — adapting the nine volumes in the best-selling series of "Work and the Glory," novels written by LDS general authority Gerald N. Lund.

The first film, titled "The Work and the Glory," is based on Lund's novel "Pillar of Light," which follows the Steeds, a Vermont family of farmers, on a journey that ends in Palmyra, N.Y. There, two of the Steed sons (Eric Johnson and Alexander Carroll) fight for the love of a local woman (Tiffany DuPont), and also encounter LDS Church founder Joseph Smith (Jonathan Scarfe).

Elder Lund said that seeing his book turned into a film is a dream come true for a lifelong movie fan. "I've always liked to believe that I write cinematically," he said with a chuckle. "But I believe it really is the ideal format for this story. It was written with a film in mind, believe it or not." But it wasn't until Swofford became involved that the movie version really got going.

Swofford, who has produced number of films, including the Oscar-nominated IMAX documentary "Amazon," has been involved in several LDS Church productions (including "Legacy"), and he was convinced that the time was right for "an LDS movie epic."