New offerings for the cabler, which runs holiday films 24/7 from Thanksgiving through New Year’s, include “The Christmas Spirit,” a retelling of “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Nicollette Sheridan. Christmas always has been a special time for former Desperate Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan, conjuring up warm memories of holiday seasons with her grandparents when she was growing up in snowy Sussex, England.
So what better way to announce her return to television after her career was interrupted by an arduous legal battle than to star in The Christmas Spirit, a movie based on her idea, which she is executive producing and starring in this December for Hallmark Channel — which prides itself on doing more family-oriented holiday programming during the last two months of the year than any other broadcast or cable outlet?
Sheridan’s The Christmas Spirit, scheduled to air Dec. 1, is one of four holiday-themed movies being produced for Hallmark by Brad Krevoy Television. Krevoy is an executive producer on all the movies along with Francisco Gonzalez, Alexandre Coscas and Eric Jarboe.
Hallmark also has acquired pitches for three other movies from Krevoy, all of which are in development as scripts.
A Royal Christmas, tentatively scheduled for Christmas 2014, centers on a young girl who, after accepting her boyfriend’s proposal, learns he is a prince. She must then gain the acceptance of his mother, who looks down on her humble origins. It is being written by Michael and Janeen Damian, who did the 2011 Hallmark original A Princess for Christmas, their second-highest-rated original movie that year. Michael Damian also will direct.
“I think they’ve created a tremendous niche for themselves during the holiday season,” says Krevoy. “Their ratings are tremendous. America watches this channel more than anybody [else’s] during the holidays. They’ve become the market leader in this area.”
Read more by Alex Ben Block in The Hollywood Reporter