4-year-old’s near-death experience is US box office sensation
New film, Heaven is for Real, tells the story of Colton Burpo who claims to have sat upon Jesus’s knee
The story of a little boy who survived a near-death experience and claims to have visited heaven, has become a US box office hit.
According to the Telegraph, Colton Burpo suffered a burst appendix when he was 4 years old and almost died on the operating table.
Colton survived and claimed that while he was unconscious he visited an angel and rainbow-filled heaven and met John the Baptist, the Virgin Mary, and sat at Jesus’s knee.
His story has now been turned into a film, Heaven is for Real, which has proved an instant hit in America. It took $22.5 million (£13.4 million) at the box office in its first 3 days, beating Transcendence, a major movie release starring Johnny Depp.
The film opens in the UK next week.
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His dad preacher Todd Burpo was sceptical of his son’s claims until he recalled details of things he says he could not have otherwise known about.
He described in detail watching his father shout in despair at God while he was unconscious in hospital. He also recognised a photograph of a great-grandfather he had never met and talked about a sister he said had ‘died in their mother’s tummy’. The family say that they had never discussed his mother Sonja’s miscarriage, which happened a year before Colton was born, or his father’s rant against God.
These details convinced Todd his son was telling the truth and he went on to write a bestselling book, which has now been made into a film 10 years later.
It’s struck a particular chord in America, but do you think it will be a success here? Watch the trailer above and let us know what you think!
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