Phil Wickham and 'David' face the Goliath of 'Avatar'

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Phil Wickham has released 14 Christian worship albums, has been Platinum certified and nominated for American Music Awards, Dove Awards, Billboard Music Awards and Grammys — but all of his vocal training and performances couldn’t prepare him to step into the shoes of one of his Biblical heroes with the upcoming animated musical film “David.”Directed by Phil Cunningham and Brent Dawes, “David” marks the second animated film this year for Angel Studios.April’s “The King of Kings” made $60 million and is the second-highest-grossing film from the studio following “Sound of Freedom,” which made $184 million.

The film hits theaters on Friday.If the release date sounds familiar, it could be because the third installment in the multibillion-dollar “Avatar” franchise, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” is released on the same day.

Presale numbers for “David” are at $15 million on 3,100 screens, but with “Avatar” tracking to open between $135 million and $165 million, and “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” also tracking between $13 million and $20 million, it would seem to be a true David vs.Goliaths for ticket sales.That in itself could be daunting, but for Wickham, the biggest obstacles came long before release dates were decided.

Despite playing in arenas with thousands of fans, he had a “secret dream” of voicing a character in an animated film.A character “that carried courage and faith and had some grand adventure.” But because he’d never chased that dream, he realistically put a limit on that particular goal.

Even when the opportunity arose, he was hesitant when going into a casting meeting.“I’m unoffendable.[I said to producers], if I suck, then just tell me because I don’t want to waste anybody’s time.

And also, I don’t want to be bad in a movie as much as you don’t want to make a bad movie,” says Wickham.The c...