40 Fun Facts About The Shack

In The Shack, how is the note in Mack's mailbox signed, using the name his wife Nan gives to God?

Papa is the affectionate name Nan uses for God, and the note invites Mack to spend the weekend at the shack where his daughter's bloodied clothing was found.

Which Oscar winner for The Help plays God the Father in the 2017 film adaptation of The Shack?

Octavia Spencer plays God as a warm host who bakes and cooks for Mack, a casting choice that some evangelical critics attacked before the film had even opened.

Which horror author wrote a 2010 novella in which a husband recommends The Shack to his wife?

Stephen King put the reference in A Good Marriage, the final novella of Full Dark, No Stars, whose protagonist recalls her husband urging the bestseller on her.

Which country music star plays Willie, Mack's friend, in the 2017 film version of The Shack?

Tim McGraw also recorded a new duet with his wife, Faith Hill, for the film's soundtrack, which mixes country acts with contemporary Christian ones.

Which Australian actor plays the grieving father Mack Phillips in the 2017 film The Shack?

Sam Worthington acts opposite a fellow Australian, Radha Mitchell, who plays Mack's devoutly religious wife Nan.

Which miracle from the Gospels does Mack share with Jesus during his weekend in The Shack?

Walking on water happens when Mack crosses the lake on foot beside Jesus, one of the separate experiences he has with each of his three hosts.

Which Canadian-born author, raised by missionary parents, wrote the bestselling novel The Shack?

William P. Young had worked as an office manager and a hotel night clerk before the novel, privately published with two friends, became a surprise bestseller.

What is the name of Mack's youngest daughter, who vanishes from a campsite in The Shack?

Missy disappears in the few minutes Mack is away rescuing another of his children, and police soon tie the abduction to a serial killer.

In The Shack, what is the name of the Holy Spirit, who appears as a small Asian woman tending a garden?

Sarayu is played in the 2017 film by Sumire Matsubara, a Japanese actress who was making her English-language film debut.

Which figure in The Shack, met apart from Mack's three hosts, asks him to sit as judge over his own children?

Sophia personifies the wisdom of God, and she shows Mack what he is asking for when he wants God to judge other people.

What name does Mack give to the grief that settles over his life after his daughter's murder in The Shack?

The Great Sadness has hung over Mack for about four years when the mysterious invitation arrives, and it has strained his bond with the rest of the family.

What happens to Mack on the road in The Shack that leaves him unsure the weekend ever took place?

A car crash puts Mack in hospital, where he learns it happened the same day he set out for the shack, before any weekend had passed.

In The Shack, what emergency pulls Mack away from the campsite just before his youngest daughter is taken?

A capsized canoe traps Mack's son underwater in its webbing, and in the minutes Mack takes to free him the little girl is left alone at the campsite.

Where does God lead Mack at the end of The Shack to find his murdered daughter's hidden body?

A mountain cave holds the body, and God makes the hike there with Mack in a new form, as an older Native American man.

Which of Mack's kids in The Shack carries guilt for the accident that drew Mack away from the campsite?

Kate believes she caused the accident, and Mack ends the story by assuring her that her sister's death was never her fault.

At which Oregon landmark in The Shack does Mack tell the legend of a self-sacrificing princess?

Multnomah Falls comes with a legend of a princess who throws herself over the edge to save her people, an early echo of the novel's theme of innocent sacrifice.

How does 13-year-old Mack strike back at his abusive father in the 2017 film The Shack?

He poisons his drink after a beating, and decades later the father's spirit appears to Mack and begs his son's forgiveness.

Which Oscar-nominated Dances with Wolves actor plays God's male form in the 2017 film The Shack?

Graham Greene takes over the role for the story's final hike, because God chooses to appear as a calm older man when Mack needs a father figure.

Aviv Alush of The Shack became the first actor from which country to play Jesus in an English-language film?

Israel knew Aviv Alush as the star of the hit series Beauty and the Baker, and before this 2017 role he had acted only in films and series made in his home country.

Which Brazilian actress plays the embodiment of God's wisdom in the 2017 film The Shack?

Alice Braga had her breakthrough in City of God, and her character here meets Mack alone, away from the three hosts he spends the weekend with.

Which British director, known for the thriller Exam, made the 2017 film version of The Shack?

Stuart Hazeldine earned a BAFTA nomination for Exam, a debut he wrote, produced and financed himself, and The Shack was his second feature as director.

Which Oscar-winning actor was first lined up to write, direct and star in the film of The Shack?

Forest Whitaker entered final talks in 2014, fresh from The Butler, and would have been doing all three jobs on one film for the first time.

The Shack is set in Oregon, but in which Canadian city did filming of the 2017 movie begin?

Vancouver was the production base, and the camping scenes were shot at a campground on Cultus Lake, elsewhere in British Columbia.

Which country duo recorded When I Pray for You, a single from the soundtrack of The Shack?

Dan + Shay took the song to No. 3 on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart, and the soundtrack album opened at No. 1 on Top Christian Albums.

Which first winner of American Idol duets with Aloe Blacc on Love Goes On from The Shack soundtrack?

Kelly Clarkson was one of several mainstream stars who recorded new songs for the album, alongside Lady Antebellum and Dierks Bentley.

Near the town of Joseph, Oregon, where does Mack take his family camping in the novel The Shack?

Wallowa Lake is a glacier-carved lake a mile south of Joseph, although the 2017 film shot its camping scenes at a lake in Canada instead.

By what nickname do police know the serial killer who abducts Mack's daughter in the novel The Shack?

The Little Ladykiller is caught only at the end, after Mack leads police to his daughter's body and forensic evidence found there identifies the man.

Which company was created just to publish The Shack after 26 publishers had turned the novel down?

Windblown Media first shipped copies out of its president's garage, and the paperback still reached No. 1 on the New York Times list about a year later.

How did publisher Brad Cummings keep The Shack in print as orders for the self-published novel grew?

Personal credit cards, twelve of them, carried the costs until a major New York publisher came in as a partner in 2008.

What did the publishers of The Shack buy with the roughly $300 they spent on early marketing?

A website took orders straight from readers while word spread through churches, blogs and Christian radio instead of paid advertising.

Which gemstone names the award The Shack won from Christian publishers for selling ten million copies?

Diamond status came from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association in 2009, barely two years after the novel first appeared as a self-published paperback.

Which former Nixon aide turned evangelical writer titled his critical review Stay Out of The Shack?

Chuck Colson objected to the lines the novel gives its divine characters and to what he saw as the author's low view of scripture.

The author of The Shack spent most of his first decade among the Dani people of which island?

New Guinea was where his missionary parents worked in the highlands, and he was sent away to a missionary boarding school at the age of six.

What was the author of The Shack seeking when he sued his publishing partners in 2009?

Unpaid royalties of about $8 million were at stake, and the partners countersued, claiming a share of the authorship, before the dispute was settled.

What former profession did Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings, the publishers of The Shack, share?

Pastors by background, the pair also co-hosted a weekly Christian podcast, and talking about the novel on it brought in the first thousand orders.

In the novel The Shack, by which unusual name does God the Father introduce herself to Mack?

Elousia is the name she offers alongside the family nickname Mack already knows, after flinging open the door before he has even managed to knock.

Which Southern Baptist seminary president used his radio show to call The Shack deeply troubling?

Albert Mohler devoted most of one broadcast to the novel, arguing that it undermined orthodox Christian teaching about God.

Which superhero film opened on the same day as The Shack and topped the US box office that weekend?

Logan took first place and Get Out second, leaving the faith-based drama third with $16.1 million, the genre's best opening in some time.

Which Christian rock band re-recorded its song Stars in an acoustic version for The Shack soundtrack?

Skillet took the song from its album Unleashed, and the music video for the new version was used to help promote the film.

Which major publishing group partnered on The Shack in 2008 through its FaithWords imprint?

Hachette agreed to a 500,000-copy press run and a national campaign that put adverts for the novel on subways in Atlanta, Chicago and New York.