New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz (Disney’s Descendants series, Blue Bloods, Witches of East End), has signed a second writing and producing deal with Brad Krevoy’s Motion Picture Company of America for two Hallmark Channel Christmas movies to air in 2020. The deal was brokered between Krevoy and de la Cruz’s manager Richard Abate at 3 Arts Entertainment.
Christmas in Angel Falls 3, with Rachel Boston and Paul Greene reprising their roles, will continue the story of an angel who falls in love with a mortal and gives up her wings. Christmas at Mansfield Park is the third of de la Cruz’s Jane Austen-themed Christmas movies.
De la Cruz and MPCA previously worked on four Christmas movies for the Hallmark Channel including Christmas in Angel Falls, Angel Falls: A Novel Holiday, Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe (based on de la Cruz’s novel published by St. Martin’s Press) and Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen.
MPCA has also optioned and is developing de la Cruz’s domestic suspense thriller The Birthday Girl, published by Dutton in 2019, with de la Cruz attached to pen the adaptation for the made-for-TV movie.
De la Cruz has penned more than 50 books, which have sold more than eight million copies worldwide. They include Disney’s Descendants series, the Alex and Eliza trilogy, the Blue Bloods series and the Witches of East End series, which became an hourlong drama on Lifetime. Her Beach Lane series is currently in development at HBO Max with Julie Plec executive-producing, and her YA novel 29 Dates is in the works as a movie at Disney+.
MPCA recently produced Christmas in Rome with Lacey Chabert and Sam Page for the Hallmark Channel, as well as Knight Before Christmas with Vanessa Hudgens and Holiday in the Wild starring Rob Lowe and Kristin Davis for Netflix.
>> Read more by Denise Petski at Deadline Hollywood