Dallas filmmaker Carl Jackson has big plans for new movie 'Jesus Freak' as it hits theaters nationwide 

"I'm not a Christian filmmaker. I'm a filmmaker who's a Christian."

Carl Jackson wants moviegoers to remember that as they go to see his latest film, The Jesus Freak. The movie opened Friday in theaters in Dallas and eight other major cities.

In the movie, a pastor's wife decides that she wants to do even more for Jesus. Her husband suggests a trip to Las Vegas, where they and some church staff start out "trying to win souls" but then she makes a mistake.

"It's a character-driven story," says Jackson, who wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Dallasite Joseph Polk, "an amazing script with multi-dimensional characters."

Three of the lead actors -- Dalon Collins, Crystal Cameron and Darret Hart -- are also from Dallas.

When Jackson sat down to write, his first draft was of a college road-trip comedy but "it became bigger." It finally matured into The Jesus Freak, which was shot in Dallas, Las Vegas and parts of California.

Jackson, who runs Carl Jackson Entertainment, wrote and directed the film and distributes it, hopes Jesus Freak hits a movie-going nerve and leads to bigger and better -- and more screens. From making videos for gospel music in the 1990s until the mid-2000s, his plans now include building studios in California and Dallas.

His other films include Southern Girls and Venatus, with a streaming spinoff of Southern Girls primed for release on Amazon. He's also shooting two features in the IMAX format, one of them a musical tied to Proverbs 31.

Making The Jesus Freak accessible ties directly into his expansion plans. But that doesn't mean he's turning his back on where he came from.

Jackson says his intent is not to show Christians and, by extension, Christianity in a bad light. He's just trying to make the film relatable to everyone.

"This is a type of faith-based movie we haven't seen before," says Jackson. "This is not a cookie-cutter faith-based movie.

"Jesus Freak is a universal story of redemption."

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