We may only be halfway through the month of October, but some parts of the country are already covered in snow, and the weather is definitely noticeably colder than normal for this time of year. Halloween fanatics are in their prime right now, but soon it will be time for Christmas fanatics to hang up their festive lights and shine, although it looks like that time may have come a bit earlier than usual this year. Netflix’s 2019 Christmas movie lineup will get you in the Holiday spirit this November.
Usually, people wait until the first day of November to get into the holiday spirit, but Netflix started the Christmas party a little early this year when they released their 2019 holiday movie lineup this morning. Much like they did throughout the month of October for Halloween, the streaming service will be releasing tons of fun new content throughout the months of November and December that will definitely have sleigh bells jingling and Christmas carols stuck in your head.
Sudbury horror film buffs will have the chance to see their hometown in a terrifying new light, as the Nickel City served as the setting for “The Curse of Buckout Road” which debuts nationwide and on video on demand on Sept. 27.
Written and directed by North Bay native Matthew Currie Holmes, the film was shot between 2016-2017 and focuses on a group of college students taking on a class project to crack the urban legends surrounding the famed Buckout Road in upstate New York.
This was Currie Holmes’ first time shooting in Sudbury, despite growing up just down Highway 17 in North Bay.
“I never really ventured into Sudbury, that was always considered no-man’s land,” laughed Currie Holmes. “But it was fantastic, working with David Anselmo (Northern Ontario Film Studios) was great. Aside from being an hour from my family, it was great to discover Sudbury, we shot in a lot of places around Sudbury and did a lot of location scouting so it was really cool.”
Aside from some B-roll shot in upstate New York where the film takes place, all of the locations in the The Curse of Buckout Road are in Sudbury. Currie Holmes and his crew shot a number of scenes at Northern Ontario Film Studios and the nearby area around Adanac Ski Hill.
The director also happened upon some great locations during his scouts that made it into the film.
“There was this really cool church up on a hill that we shot at that was just such a beautiful building,” said Currie Holmes. “It was like a 1970’s church, it was just really cool, it was this ominous church on the hill and it was a great spot.”
The church in question was Our Lady of Hope Church off Brennan Road in the Gatchell neighbourhood.
“We shot near the ski hill, in the woods back there, the little service road that goes back there was our Buckout Road,” said Currie Holmes.
This was Currie Holmes’ first time working with David Anselmo and NOFS and the director had glowing praise for the experience of coming to Sudbury and working with Anselmo.
“We loved it, we’re actually shooting another one up in Northern Ontario. As far as working with David Anselmo it was great, he was very accommodating, his studio was really functional as far as we had our production office there but we also shot inside the studio, we also shot in the parking lot near the forest area,” said Currie Holmes. “We utilized that whole area by the ski hill, it was great.”
The crew also found a dilapidated old house that they cleaned up and used as a the setting in parts of the movie. Currie Holmes says he’s excited to see Sudbury as a big star on the big screen.
“If you’re going to shoot a horror film there, with some atmosphere, you can definitely do a lot worse (than Sudbury),” he said.
If you want to catch The Curse of Buckout Road on the big screen, Imagine Cinemas – Downtown Movie Lounge will be screening the film this Friday and Saturday at 6:40 p.m. and 9:10 p.m.
As the Hallmark Channel and several millions of faithful “Hearties” know, “When Calls the Heart” has become the true heart of the Hallmark Channel and reigns as the longest-running original series in the network’s history. The drama centered on faith, love, unity, and persevering determination of the Northwest Territory community of Hope Valley is a fixture for Sunday night viewing.
Now, it seems that the first streaming series for the network on Hallmark Movies Now, “When Hope Calls.” is drawing fans with equal enthusiasm.
The fervor is building so significantly that the Hallmark Channel is adding a one-time special-airing of the first two episodes, of “When Hope Calls,” to its schedule on Saturday, September 21, according to September 13, breaking news for Broadway World and The Futon Critic.
Brookfield is becoming beloved
“When Hope Calls” is set in the town of Brookfield, not too far from the familiar Hope Valley, but far enough to allow a brand-new start in the lives of two sisters, Grace Bennett and Lillian Walsh (Jocelyn Hudon and Morgan Kohan).
The sisters were introduced to “When Calls the Heart” fans during last year’s Christmas movie feature, “The Greatest Christmas Blessing.” The sisters were en route to Brookfield and beginning their own orphanage when a broken wagon wheel waylaid them and their group of orphaned children in Hope Valley. The whole community joined together in surrendering their own personal Christmas wishes for the sake of blessing the children.
Brookfield is the childhood home of Lillian, who was soon adopted after her arrival at the orphanage following the death of the siblings’ parents, while Grace was left to “age out” of the system.Don’t miss the latest news!Click on the topic you interest most. We’ll keep you updated with all the news you shouldn’t miss.TV SHOWS
The sisters both know the loneliness and isolation of “institutional” care. They are determined to do things differently in their caretaking of the children, while at the same time, learning more about one another.
“When Calls the Heart” favorites, Pascale Hutton and Kavan Smith, who portray Rosemary and Lee Coulter, come to the aid of their neighboring community in the wake of a fire, bringing lumber and lots of love. The second episode of the two-episode television treat, “From the Ashes,” will feature the endearing characters coming to lend vital support.
The episode will follow the first episode of the breakout series, “New Hope,” which introduces the new setting and characters, along with rewards and challenges of life on “When Hope Calls.” The broadcast of the very special double feature will begin at 9 PM ET on the Hallmark Channel.
More to love
Even though the acclaimed Canadian actresses of “When Hope Calls,” have given nothing but gratitude in being part of the “When Calls the Heart” television legacy of success, Jocelyn Hudon stressed that “we make it our own” of the new drama in a “Home & Family” interview last month.
The eyes of another handsome Mountie, Gabriel Winslow (RJ Hatanaka) are drawn to Lillian, while a rugged veterinarian, Chuck Stewart (Greg Hovanessian) becomes captivated by Grace despite some past family troubles. The sisters forge their own lives while never failing to give their best to the children in their care.
The cherished “When Calls the Heart” writer is creating a three-book series for “When Hope Calls,” collaborating with her daughter, Laurel Oke Logan.
The new series is already becoming more than a spinoff, and will surely be delighting fans for a long time to come.
The When Calls the Heart spinoff has a premiere date.
When Hope Calls, an offshoot of Hallmark Channel’s top-rated drama series, will officially premiere Friday, Aug. 30 on Hallmark Movies Now, the network’s streaming service, ET has exclusively learned. The first two episodes will launch that day, with subsequent episodes debuting every Friday through Oct. 25.
When Hope Calls tells the story of sisters Lillian (Morgan Kohan) and Grace (Jocelyn Hudon) who open an orphanage in the 1916 Western town of Brookfield. Caught between the traditions of cattle ranchers and the ambitions of a growing town, they strive to find romance and happiness while overcoming the challenges of helping the children in their care. Throughout their journey, they discover community, acceptance and love as they create the family they always longed to have.
Kohan and Hudon first appeared as their characters in the 2018 When Calls the Heart holiday movie, “The Great Christmas Blessing.”
Joining the duo in the cast are R.J. Hatanaka as Gabriel, the Brookfield Mountie who catches Lillian’s eye; Greg Hovanessian as Chuck, the ranch hand vying for Grace’s heart; and Wendy Crewson as Tess, Chuck’s mother and up until recent events, a longtime family friend of Lillian’s.
With the premiere date now set, ET debuts nine exclusive photos from When Hope Calls.
Jocelyn Hudon and Morgan KohanCrown MediaMorgan Kohan and R.J. HatanakaCrown MediaGreg HovanessianCrown MediaWendy CrewsonCrown MediaJocelyn Hudon and Morgan KohanCrown MediaR.J. HatanakaCrown MediaJocelyn Hudon and Morgan KohanCrown MediaR.J. Hatanaka and Morgan KohanCrown Media
“When Hope Calls embodies the same heartfelt themes of community, family and faith that have resonated so strongly with When Calls the Heart fans over the past six years. This is another series that viewers are sure to treasure,” said Michelle Vicary, Executive Vice President of Programming and Network Publicity at Crown Media Family Networks. “The series rounds out the experience we are offering loyal viewers in 2019. Along with our linear networks, publishing and podcast platforms, our SVOD service is another way to enjoy the original content our brand is known for.”
It feels like you entered a time machine when you walk onto the set of the Hallmark TV series “When Hope Calls.”
The set depicts the early 1900s town of Brookfield. The media got a glimpse of the rustic “Wild West” town set, built literally in the middle of a secluded farm field in Powassan.
“We are glad we had the time to do it because of the snowfall that we had this year. It was a little more than usual but we had about 1,000 carpenter days throughout the 12 weeks working on this, including a lot of northern Ontario carpenters who were trained by some experts in Toronto to build something like this,” stated David Anselmo, President of Hideaway Pictures.
Hideaway Pictures received $3 million in provincial funding which was part of a larger funding announcement made by Vic Fedeli, MPP for Nipissing, about the investment of over $12.8 million at the Northern Ontario Film Studios western-themed location in Powassan.
Close to 100 people were on set working today, with Anselmo estimating 75 per cent of them being from this area.
Anselmo hopes the series, which is a spin-off of the series “When Calls the Heart,” (which is shot in Vancouver) continues to be a success. While the photos of the amazing western town are still being kept a secret, Anselmo says the word is already getting out about it.
“We built this for our TV series, which we are hoping to have multiple seasons with, but there have been inquiries about filming here,” he said.
“There are not a lot of sets of this kind in Ontario or in Canada so we are getting phone calls. I do believe it will attract more productions to the region because now we have a set that is very unique that was not here before.”
An undertaking that started roughly seven years ago to transform the former Barrydowne Arena has had wide-reaching impact on the city of Greater Sudbury and Northern Ontario as a whole.
The building itself is now the home of Northern Ontario Film Studios (NOFS), and from that transformation has sprouted one of the fastest-growing industries in the northern part of the province, as film and television production in Northern Ontario is a multi-million dollar business.
Last year, Northern Ontario Film Studios and its sister company Hideaway Pictures created 977 full-time equivalency jobs in Northern Ontario, and Hideaway Pictures had $53 million in gross production.
“Northern Ontario as a whole is the fastest-growing new film centre in Canada,” said NOFS CEO David Anselmo.
“A lot of that has to do with the current government we have and the support they give us because it has incentivized the region to allow productions to come to an area that doesn’t have the infrastructure that other centres do, like Toronto or Vancouver, and that incentive allows for locals such as myself and other locals in Northern Ontario to build on infrastructure and create services that make it more cost-effective to shoot in the region.”
Northern Ontario Film Studios serviced more than 15 movies last year in equipment, starwagon and studio rental in Northern Ontario, and has serviced more than 75 films since its inception in 2012. Northern Ontario as a whole has become a very popular filming location, according to Anselmo.
In addition to drawing the attention of filmmakers from around Canada and south of the boarder, Northern Ontario has become a strong draw for those in the film and television industry who had to leave home years ago in pursuit of their careers.
Anselmo is one of those such stories, having moved back home to Sudbury in 2010 after cutting his teeth overseas.
“I wanted to live the Northern Ontario lifestyle and live at home and to work in an industry that I love that was non-existent when I was in high school and university so I had to leave,” said Anselmo. “When I came back there was maybe one movie being shot a year to now having 10 to 15 television series and movies shot a year, where people who were part-time in the industry now have full-time jobs going from one show to another.”
Having a permanent basecamp was essential to growing the industry and establishing a sense of permanency has allowed Northern Ontario to grow and retain its talent within the film and television industry. Anslemo has poured around $500,000 into overhauling the old Barrydowne Arena and turning it into a hub for the industry, right here in Sudbury.
NOFS features a 16,000 sq. ft. single span main stage floor, on and off-site production offices, a hair and makeup room, a prop shop, a craft kitchen, laundry facilities and ample parking. There is 2,000 sq. ft. of auxiliary space and fibre optic wi-fi service provided by Agilis Networks throughout the building.
“It was vitally important to me, as a producer, to establish a permanent base so that filmmakers can come in and work out of a space that was ready to go,” said Anselmo. “When looking for a space, we sat down with the city, who had vision at the time to realize the importance and potential of this new industry. The Barrydowne Arena was an old, dilapidated arena that wasn’t being used very much or for anything other than storage.”
The building was once covered in graffiti and the surrounding area wasn’t seen in the best of lights. Anselmo compared it to the broken window theory out of New York City, where if you see one broken window the assumption is made that it’s a bad area.
As the arena began its transformation, Anselmo says that he saw and heard of the changes to the neighbourhood, including neighbours telling him that their sheds were no longer being broken into, and at least 10 companies have moved into the area and now house their businesses there.
“I don’t know if it was ever a dangerous neighbourhood, I just think that there’s not so much vandalism going on as there used to be,” said Anselmo. “I know there were stories done back in 2007 about the vandalism at the Barrydowne Arena and how some St. Charles students had painted it, and there was another story from 2008 about some of the citizens complaining about the problem as well.”
The overarching theme of growth and development touches many facets of the film and tv industry in Northern Ontario, from job creation, to the ever-increasing number of productions that are choosing Ontario’s north as their destination of choice.
In addition to the number of productions, the size and scope of productions has changed and evolved as well.
“The transition we’re seeing is from mostly small indie films, which are still being shot here, to bigger television series, in our studio last year we had V-Wars, which was a big Netflix tv show that’s coming to Netflix in 2019,” said Anselmo.
“The Toronto Star mentioned the Netflix hub that’s opening in Toronto and all the Netflix shows that are being shot in Ontario and they mentioned V-Wars was shot out of our studio in Sudbury, and it wouldn’t have been able to shoot up here if it didn’t have the services of the studio and the home base it needed to pull something of this magnitude off.”
As the industry continues to grow, so too does the feeder system and colleges like Canadore in North Bay, which Anselmo says has one of the best programs out there for students looking to get into the film and television industry.
“We’re seeing more and more great crews coming out of Northern Ontario, and there’s many stories of people moving back home to this area to work,” said Anselmo. “Canadore is churning out fabulous students that I employ on my film sets all the time no matter where I’m shooting.”
NOFS opened a second studio in North Bay two years ago.
“That’s why I talk about the film industry as a whole, as a regional industry, rather than city-centric,” said Anselmo. “We’re all benefitting, there are movies being shot in Sault Ste. Marie, there are movies being shot in North Bay and there are movies being shot in Sudbury, and that’s all contributing to our industry.”
According to numbers from the film workers’ unions that Anselmo has looked at, Northern Ontario is currently the fifth-largest Canadian film industry, behind only Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Alberta.
When it comes to the impacts of this ever-growing industry, they are felt beyond just those who work on film and TV sets.
“The spin-off economy that happens because of our industry is a lot bigger than we think it is,” said Anselmo. “Our direct dollars are recycled back into our economy for groceries and property taxes and spending money at other local businesses. Two Decembers ago, (city of Greater Sudbury economic development officer) Meredith Armstrong and I walked into a coffee shop on Elm Street and one of the barristas asked when we were coming back and said every time there’s a film in town their sales go up 35 per cent.”
Overhauling a graffiti-covered arena has certainly made a major impact on Sudbury and Northern Ontario.
The pic, directed by Monika Mitchell and written by Cara Russell, follows a gallant English knight who seeks out his true quest after a sorceress inadvertently sends him from the medieval era to present day. While there he soon finds himself falling for a caring high school science teacher who is disillusioned by love. Josh Whitehouse, who stars in MGM’s reboot of Valley Girl and the upcoming HBO Game of Thrones prequel, also stars. Cameras will roll this April in Ontario, Canada.
Also serving as EPs with Hudgens are Brad Krevoy, Amanda Phillips Atkins, Eric Jarboe, Jimmy Townsend, and Lorenzo Nardini. Mark Amato is the consulting producer with David Anselmo producing. The Knight Before Christmas is a Motion Picture Corporation of America production.
Hudgens recently starred in the title role of Lerner and Loewe’s Gigi on Broadway and starred in the Kennedy Center production last year of In the Heights. She broke out in the Catherine Hardwicke feature Thirteen before the multi-million success of Disney’s High School Musical franchise. She went on to star Sucker Punch, Spring Breakers, Second Act and can next be seen in Bad Boys for Life. In addition to Rent: Live, she also starred as Betty Rizzo in Fox’s Grease: Live.
Hudgens is repped by CAA, Untitled and Ziffren Brittenham LLP. Mitchell is repped by Gersh and The Characters Talent Agency. Whitehouse is repped by CAA, Untitled, United Agents, and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.
‘With these investments, we’re building on our reputation as a prime destination in the industry and signalling that Northern Ontario is open for business’
Vic Fedeli’s trying to put money where his mouth is today when indicating the Ford government supports film in the province.
Today the Nipissing MPP and Finance Minister did that by announcing $1.3 million in infrastructure funding to support film production in North Bay along with two additional projects centred in North Bay and Sudbury.
“I was the guest speaker at Film Ontario and I told them loud and clear that what you can count on from Doug Ford’s government in one word will be ‘stability’ and they took that as a sign,” said Fedeli during the funding announcement at Canadore College this morning.
David Anselmo has overseen numerous film projects in North Bay including many of the Hallmark Christmas movies.
He believes this funding announcement is a step in the right direction.
“The film industry in Ontario is good business, it creates a lot of jobs,” noted Anselmo, who is originally from Sudbury.
“We create a few 1000 here in Northern Ontario every year so this is important to grow the economy and there is a dedication from our government to grow this economy and this is a great choice because the film industry in Ontario as a whole – including Northern Ontario – is growing and it is a very big and growing market.”
A total of $1 million in funding will go to Hideaway Pictures Inc. to produce “Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe” and “Christmas at Grand Valley.”
Another $340,000 will go to the Northern Ontario Film Studios to help them purchase more mobile equipment.
“The infrastructure needs of Northern Ontario are huge with the ever-growing market that is happening here there is a need to service those films that do come in and this is a part of that,” noted Anselmo.
“By investing in film and television projects, our government is providing economic and job opportunities for local businesses and communities,” said Nipissing MPP Fedeli.
“With these investments, we’re building on our reputation as a prime destination in the industry and signalling that Northern Ontario is open for business.”
TORONTO — A biopic tracing the brutal life and extraordinary career of goaltender Terry Sawchuk is hitting the big screen in March.
“Goalie” stars Mark O’Brien as the Winnipeg-born hockey great, whose run through the ’50s and ’60s established him as one of the winningest goaltenders in the National Hockey League’s history.
Kevin Pollak of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” plays general manager Jack Adams while O’Brien’s real-life wife Georgina Reilly of “Murdoch Mysteries” plays Sawchuk’s wife, Pat. The movie was shot in Sudbury, Ont.
Producers say the film follows Sawchuk from his youth in Winnipeg to Detroit, Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles, and New York between 1950 and 1970. That includes his 103 shutouts, the 400 stitches to his face, and tragic death at age 40 in 1970.
Director Adriana Maggs co-wrote the screenplay with sister Jane Maggs. It’s based on the David Dupuis book “Sawchuk: The Troubles and Triumphs of the World’s Greatest Goalie” and the book of poetry “Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems,” by their father, Randall Maggs.
“Goalie” is set to open March 1 in Toronto and Vancouver, before hitting other cities in the spring.
“There’s massive human depth to Terry Sawchuk which is why he has inspired a lot of fascination and obsession over the years, beyond his un-paralleled skills, grit and the records that lasted for decades,” producer Daniel Iron, vice president of Blue Ice Pictures, said Tuesday in a release.
Maggs said she tried “to explore masculinity in a world where a man’s worth is measured in the ways he is a warrior.”
She also said the film was written specifically for O’Brien, known for AMC’s “Halt and Catch Fire” and CBC-TV’s “Republic of Doyle.” He’s also listed as an executive producer.
A Hallmark Christmas movie is a beloved staple of holiday programming, and it has a certain rhythm. A high-powered woman returns to her small town for the holidays, bruised by some romantic or professional disappointment. She faces a Christmassy challenge and finds solace in her family, the town, its traditions, and a handsome man she didn’t expect, even if the rest of us saw it coming.
You might think it’s easy to dream up a premise, but not everybody can sustain the magic over 120 pages of a script. Ron Oliver is one of the fixers Hallmark calls — sometimes a week before shooting — when a movie is missing that special touch.
“It’s hard to find writers who understand that brand,” the writer-director says. “The ones we use again and again, they tend to be the ones that get it.”
When he dives into a script, he usually sees the same issues. Writers are lured into the rom-com trope of argument between the romantic leads. That won’t work — this isn’t When Harry Met Hallmark.
“You want banter, you don’t want bicker, so you have to pull back on the sharp words they would have with each other,” he says. “You don’t want to hit big heavy-duty emotions.”
Another problem Oliver sees is too much festive restraint. Some writers seem hesitant to load each page with seasonal cheer. A scene with two people walking down a street is a waste. He advises adding a chestnut roasting stand, a Christmas tree lot, or a skating rink.
“You take the same stuff you do in a regular movie and you Christmas the crap out of it,” he says, laughing.
Hallmark ran its first original Christmas movie in 2002, and within a few years, it had three or four new movies each holiday season. The Countdown to Christmas franchise began in 2009 with 12 movies. Every year since 2011, it has topped the previous year’s total. Which brings us to this year.
Daniel Thompson and his friends, who live in South Carolina, review every film for their podcast Deck the Hallmark. One of the guys loves the movies, one is on the fence, but Thompson is not a fan. Each night when his children are nestled in bed, the high school principal begins his lonely work in the living room.
He shakes his head at the obstacles that could be easily overcome and the way big cities are casually slagged in favour of the quaint small town. The stakes couldn’t be lower, he says in one episode about this year’s Christmas Joy. A “keenly intelligent market researcher” named Joy returns to small-town North Carolina to help her aunt recover from a ladder fall, rekindles a romance with old crush, and takes her aunt’s place in the cookie competition. With a few exceptions, the protagonists are usually white. The couple is always heterosexual. Love, togetherness and Christmas always triumph.
One night, Thompson watched a misunderstood uncle make an emotional speech about how he’d not always dealt with things “in the right way.” But then the man said “I’ve said a lot of things that I’m proud of.”
Thompson thought he misheard. It was past 1 a.m.
When he mentioned it on the podcast, his co-hosts didn’t believe it.
“I rewound it three times — and he forgot the word ‘not,’ ” he says.
“And Hallmark said wrap it, that’s good!” one of his friends chimed in.
In Deck the Hallmark, three friends from South Carolina review each of this year’s 37 Hallmark Christmas movies. From left to right, Brandon Gray is the most enthusiastic supporter, Daniel Pandolph is on the fence, and Daniel Thompson hates them. (PHOTO BY WILL KEOWN)
While Hallmark squares off against similar fare from Netflix and Lifetime, nobody can beat it for quantity. The company churns out the movies like their characters bake cookies: by the dozen, following a trusted recipe. Most are shot in 15 days on a $2-million (U.S.) budget, starring a female lead in her 30s or 40s. Of the 37 movies this year, 17 were shot in Canada. Vancouver is a popular filming location, but in recent years, Ontario has lured the company to northern cities like Sudbury and North Bay with a grant program.
Oliver has written or directed 10 Christmas films for the network. When he comes up with a premise, he imagines that feeling of being 6 years old on Christmas morning in Dundalk, Ont., walking downstairs to the living room, seeing the tree and presents. How does he go back to that place as an adult? How does he bring millions of us with him?
“People tend to look at these movies as perhaps a little bit cheesy, or a little bit simplistic, but there is a really strong sense of the hero’s journey,” he says. “You’ve got this character, she’s a high-powered executive, but she’s unhappy. Something is missing, whether it’s love or a sense of completion. There is something missing and the journey back to Christmas is this thing that fixes her or him.”
Bobby Chaumont grew up in Sudbury and played for the local Ontario Hockey League team for four years, and he now plays in Europe. Last spring, when his season was ending in France, his brother sent him an email. A hockey movie was being filmed in Sudbury, and the local casting company was looking for extras who could skate. Every summer, Chaumont comes home to work, so his brother thought he might be interested.
The 34-year-old had no idea that certain stretches of Sudbury’s downtown had been doubling as New York, or that the nearby community of Copper Cliff — built around a mine site discovered in 1885 — had been a charming stand in for small-town America. He didn’t know that Ontario’s Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines intersected with Hollywood.
“I’ll be honest, I never watched a Hallmark movie in my life before,” Chaumont says from Germany, where he plays for EHC Waldkraiburg.
Bobby Chaumont, a Sudbury-born pro hockey player, and his mother both had roles in Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe, a Hallmark movie which shot in various locations in northern Ontario this year. Chaumont was upgraded to a speaking role as a caroller, but his scene didn’t make the final cut. “I’m not a star yet,” he joked.
In 2013, the ministry made changes to its Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. (NOHFC) to lure more filmmakers to places like Sudbury and North Bay. As long as they employ a Canadian production company and satisfy several conditions, including local spending and employment, companies like Hallmark are reimbursed to a maximum of $500,000 a picture for their northern spend (with exceptions for longer television series). Hallmark has been given $6 million for the 12 Christmas movies it has shot in Northern Ontario in the last five years.
Each Hallmark Christmas movie needs 300 to 500 extras to marvel at a tree lighting, skate around a rink or mingle at a party, and Micheline Blais is the woman who finds them. Her conservative estimate is that Hallmark has paid close to $500,000 in wages to northern Ontario background actors this year, for Christmas movies alone. A ministry official says each production typically comes with 44 local jobs, not counting extras.
Blais always wanted to work in the film industry, but her parents encouraged her to be practical. When she was growing up in Sudbury, the idea of a film career in that city was a non-starter. So she went to nursing school, and until a few years ago, she was training actors to be standardized patients for the Medical Council of Canada exams.
“I always kept my foot in with indie projects, worked on little things here and there,” she says. “And now I get to live the dream in my hometown.”
Blais owns Cast North.She casts local actors, stand-ins, photo doubles and hundreds of extras. For Hallmark movies, she’s usually looking for a diverse crowd with no tattoos, no piercings and no facial hair.
“During Movember and hunting season in northern Ontario, it is very challenging to find males without facial hair,” she says.
When you tell background actors to bring a “winter wardrobe” to set, some locals show up with bulky parkas, plaid and big boots — the “northern Ontario tundra look,” as Blais calls it. Hallmark wants colourful jewel tones. They need to convince viewers that these people are living in an American small town, or maybe New York. She always has a few spare coats.
The films are often shot in the late summer and fall, with three weeks of prep work to confirm the local cast, crew, equipment and locations, and then there are 15 days of shooting.
On set, background actors are reminded to be happy, lively, and to channel the holiday spirit.
“That kind of stuff really shows on camera, everyone really glows,” says background actor Bobby Chaumont, who this summer had stints as a cop, hockey player, military aide, search-and-rescue worker and man milling about a silent auction.
For Pride and Prejudice and Christmas — starring Party of Five alum Lacey Chabert — he was upgraded to a “caroller.” He sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and snagged his first ACTRA credit. (It was cut, but it still counts and he’s two speaking roles away from being a full ACTRA member.) He was fascinated to see how the movie was shot. On location, there was a buzz, with crowds coming out to watch the shoots.
In Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe, Lacey Chabert stars as a financial adviser who goes home for the holidays and reconnects with her high school nemesis. The film was shot in northern Ontario. The image is a good example of veteran writer/director Ron Oliver’s motto: “You take the same stuff you do in a regular movie and you Christmas the crap out of it.” (SHANE MAHOOD)
Blais says that people are working hard on their craft. “It’s giving them hope for other career opportunities,” she says. “It really is exciting times in the North.”
As he slogs his way through the films, Daniel Thompson likes to imagine the Hallmark writers’ room, with three wheels on the wall. The first wheel is situational, the second has romantic scenarios, and the third is just a circle of smiley faces. Thompson knows that some of the films are adapted from books, but he feels like it’s the same plot, over and over again.
He compares the movies to cheeseburgers, comfort food on the screen. People who like cheeseburgers are always happy to try another. Also, if you miss 15 minutes because your child is having a meltdown, you won’t be lost.
“I do think that Hallmark knows exactly what they’re doing,” Thompson says.
Hallmark does not accept unsolicited pitches from the public. It works with a stable of writers and producers who pitch them premises year round. If you bring an idea that works with the brand, they let you make your movie.
Says writer-director Oliver: “This is going to sound crazy, but it’s one of the most artistically rewarding experiences that you can have.”
Oliver’s first Hallmark film was Bridal Fever, shot in Toronto. Born in Barrie, he got his start as a magician, and hosted a YTV clip show in the 1980s. Low-res footage of him microwaving water in the YTV offices appears on YouTube. He also recalls throwing New Kids on the Block dolls off a rooftop to see which member of the group was the most aerodynamic.
Oliver began writing spec scripts (on a typewriter) and got his big break when he sold a horror script that became Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II in 1985. He now lives in Palm Springs, Calif., and directs slapstick, horror and comedy projects, but every year, he has his “sugar cake” and does a couple of Hallmark movies. It’s a nice way to end the year.
Oliver says the typical Christmas script should take around four weeks to write — and if it goes longer, the story likely needs a rethink.
“Again, the kind of movies I make, this is not Tree of Life,” he says, laughing as he references the Palme d’Or-winning film. “Everybody has a different methodology.”
He estimates that one-third of the films are based on books. They don’t have to be bestsellers — “just cute stories that can work within our paradigm,” he says.
There are no Christmas dinner throwdowns over immigration freezes or the Mueller investigation. Nobody is yelling.
Ron Oliver, who was born in Barrie, has written or directed 10 Hallmark Christmas movies. This photo was taken on the set of “Every Christmas has a Story” a few years ago, he said.
“You want people to have a respite from that stuff,” he says.
While the movies are apolitical, Slate writer Zachary Jason cited their “red-state appeal,” in a 2017 piece about Hallmark’s Christmas offerings.
“As much as these movies offer giddy, predictable escapes from Trumpian chaos, they all depict a fantasy world in which America has been Made Great Again.”
Oliver says some people call Hallmark a “Christian right-wing network,” but he doesn’t think that’s fair. While it occasionally does a movie with a specific faith element, he says the network paints with an “extraordinarily broad brush,” so everyone can watch.
In Canada, Corus Entertainment recently announced an exclusive multi-year partnership with the Hallmark Channel. Their W Network has featured Hallmark movies in the past, but this deal is all-encompassing, giving the network exclusive Canadian licensing rights to the movies and branded stunts. Since the launch of “Countdown to Christmas” this November, W Network is the most watched network in Canada on weekends. Their audience has grown 68 per cent with women aged 25 to 54, and 101 per cent with adults 18 to 34, over the same period last year.
“Hallmarkers are really loyal to the brand,” says Carolyn Spriet, president of Hallmark Canada. “Our phone has been ringing off the hook with people just saying, it’s the greatest, it’s here, finally I can watch it here in Canada.”
Slate called 2017’s lineup of Hallmark movies “42 hours of sugary, sexist, preposterously plotted, plot hole-festooned, belligerently traditional, ecstatically Caucasian cheer,” with “occasional sightings of Christmas sweater-wearing black people.” (A Fox News columnist responded: It was a “throwback to an age when Hollywood produced family-friendly films and love stories that did not involve leather and whips.”)
A handful of this year’s Hallmark Christmas movies star non-white leads, including Christmas Everlasting, this year’s “Hall of Fame” movie — a designation that means a bigger budget, bigger stars and more time to shoot. Oliver directed the film and has a co-writing credit on the script. It was shot in Atlanta and starred Tatyana Ali, Patti LaBelle and Dondre Whitfield.
In Christmas Everlasting, Tatyana Ali stars as Lucy, a woman who returns to her hometown after the passing of her beloved sister. Because of a clause in the will, Lucy stays through the holidays and reunites with her high school love. (BRIAN DOUGLAS)
“Ah, two people of color!” one woman said on the company’s Facebook page. Another viewer noted that she was about to boycott the channel but was happy to see diversity, and hoped the network would keep it up “and make movies that reflect society and the many rich cultures of today.”
“It was a very conscious decision on Hallmark’s part,” Oliver says, “and it’s the first time in the history of the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies that they had a specifically diverse cast up front.” The story also had death and grief, the type of sharp edges Hallmark films tend to avoid. Earlier this year, Oliver lost his mother and his beloved dog Crawford T. Manchester, who he likes to put into his movies. He says he poured all of that loss into this film, and was able to sneak the dog’s face onto a donation jar in one scene, and a can of cat food in another.
Thompson, the Hallmark hater, says Christmas Everlasting was his favourite of the bunch so far for its more realistic romance. (According to Hallmark, Christmas Everlasting was in the top five or six for ratings in the U.S., behind movies starring Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert and LeAnn Rimes.In Canada, it was the top TV movie in November among women 25 to 54, according to Corus.)
Oliver says people like it for all the typical reasons, “but also because they’re seeing reflections of themselves in a movie.”
One group that has not seen itself in an overt way is the LGBTQ community. This year, Thompson noticed that Road to Christmas had a brother character who seemed to be coded as gay. The character had a male business partner and it was implied they live together, “but they don’t ever come out and say it,” he says.
Oliver wasn’t involved in Road to Christmas, but he’s done the same thing, adding a same-sex couple to a church scene or a party.
“I must say that Hallmark has been incredibly embracing of my husband and I,” he says, adding that there are other LGBTQ people who work at the company. The company’s social justice report notes that it was designated one of the best places to work for LGBTQ equality by the Human Rights Campaign. “There’s not a sense of we can’t do gay,” Oliver says. “What they are aware of is that the culture has slowly changed.”
JiaoJiao Shen, a Hallmark Cards spokesperson, says the company has heard from its consumers and critics and has responded with more diverse actors in leading roles this year. She says that in 2019, two movies will celebrate the Jewish faith. While Shen does not work for Hallmark Channel, she says she believes“that we are looking at ways to represent LGBT relationships in our films as well.” (Hallmark launched its LGBTQ-specific line of cards in 2015, but has always had non-gender-specific relationship cards.)
“We are actively pursuing a more diverse range of talent both in front of and behind the camera,” says Michelle Vicary, executive vice-president of programming for Crown Media, in the Hallmark social responsibility report of 2017. “We are working toward expanding in this area further.”
Ron Oliver thinks that someday, he’ll probably be the one who shoots the first Christmas movie with a married same-sex couple.
“I think they get a little gun-shy, you know, and rightfully so,” he says, noting that when the network does something that feels “off brand” to a “small percentage” of their audience, they are deluged with mail — like the time they ran a Good Witch marathon on Easter weekend.
This year, Hallmark has 37 original Christmas movies. But they’re already thinking of next year, and so are we. They don’t accept unsolicited scripts from the public, but we analyzed this year’s crop and created a plot generator and got our staff to try it!
Three times a year, at their offices in Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, staff with the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. comb through funding applications. They look at projected spending in northern Ontario, the track record of the applicants, the feasibility and the cast.
Since 2013, the government has paid out $116 million to 174 projects like Letterkenny, Through Black Spruce, and Indian Horse for a portion of their northern spending. A spokesperson says those projects have invested more than $500 million in the North, bolstering the local film industry and sustaining the equivalent of 2,700 annual jobs since 2013.
Jonathon Condratto, the film liaison for Greater Sudbury, says the industry loves Hallmark movies for the “steady flow of work” they provide, and the opportunities they create for career advancement. Historically known as a mining community,Sudbury now has 15 to 35 productions filming within its boundaries each year, and hundreds of people working as grips, location managers and producers. “We’re starting to get more directors and writers that are starting to come from Sudbury,” he says. “It’s kind of exciting to see how it grew.”
In North Bay, there were 16 productions filmed this year, and six were Hallmark Christmas movies. Officials cite the lack of permit fees, low traffic and commute times, and the financial incentives as the reason North Bay is an attractive place to film.
Many people credit Sudbury native David Anselmo for helping to build the industry.
His IMDB page has many credits for Hallmark movies, including four Hallmark Christmas projects this year (and another for Netflix). Anselmo’s two companies trumpet the “Northern advantage” in their literature. Hideaway Pictures is a production company that offers local location scouting, crew and casting services, along with consulting to help companies “identify and facilitate regional financing opportunities.” His Northern Ontario Film Studios is a self-described “one-stop shop” with a sound stage, mobile unit vehicles and equipment. In 2014, William H. White, a rental equipment supplier, opened a Sudbury location, partnering with Anselmo.
“While we’re filming, he’s thinking about next year,” says casting expert Micheline Blais. “He’s already making sure that everybody has a job.”
Ron Oliver is thinking about next year too. A friend who usually does action movies came to him with a great idea, and the two men pitched Hallmark together.
They’ll work on the script soon, “but I can almost guarantee we’ll have to rewrite it three weeks before we go to the floor,” he says. “It’s just the way it works.”
When he sits down to think about how to bring a protagonist back to that magical Christmas feeling, he’ll probably think of Dundalk when he was a boy: the perfect town north of Guelph with a big Christmas tree, decorations on the local shops, and a pageant at the community centre.
“Went back there twenty years ago; nothing but empty storefronts and strip malls,” he writes in an email. “This is the appeal of Hallmark Christmas movies; going home to a place that doesn’t exist anymore …”
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