News

Katie Leclerc (Switched at Birth) and Ryan Carnes (General Hospital) have wrapped the Door County, Wisconsin shoot for A Cherry Pie Christmas (wt), a new holiday indie written and directed by John Stimpson of H9 Films.

Pic tells the story of an ambitious pastry chef who returns to her small-town roots in Door County, and, over the holidays, needs to decide between her career dreams and her family’s struggling orchard business. The project reunites Stimpson and Leclerc following their work together on several other recent holiday romantic comedies, including A Very Vermont Christmas, Letters to Santa, and A Cape Cod Christmas.

Producers include Mark Donadio and Miriam Marcus of Moody Independent, as well as Staci Griesbach, a Wisconsin native, and Leclerc. Destination Door County, Travel Wisconsin, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation were all cited as key supporters of the production.

Said Stimpson, “Door County...

Photo: Katie Leclerc, Ryan McPartlin Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Courtesy Off Camera Entertainment

Hallmark Channel has announced a new, original movie, A Very Vermont Christmas, to air as part of the popular Christmas in July programming event.

The movie stars Katie Leclerc as a Vermont brewmaster and local champion skier, and Ryan McPartlin as a novice skier. Together, they brew up the perfect seasonal microbrew to save her family’s business in time for Christmas.

Read on to find out more about this new, original movie and its cast, as well as see beautiful images taken on the film set.

A Very Vermont Christmas on Hallmark Channel Photo: Joanna Herrington, Katie Leclerc Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Courtesy Off Camera Entertainment

According to the official synopsis, it’s Christmastime in a Vermont ski town, where Joy (Leclerc) a young brewmaster and local champion skier, runs her family’s classic ski pub,...

Halloween has come and gone and it’s time to start celebrating the holidays. Ok, well, Lifetime (and some of its competitors) began decking their lineups with new Christmas movies before Oct. 30 — but now it’s really time to start making the season bright.

See below for Lifetime’s full 2020 “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” slate of holiday movies, which includes 30 different original films this year. Two notable projects on the list are “A Christmas Setup,” which marks the cable channel’s first-ever holiday movie to feature a gay couple as the leads, and “A Sugar & Spice Holiday,” Lifetime’s first holiday film led by an Asian cast.

Christmas on Ice

Starring Abigail Klein, Ryan Cooper, Caroline Portu,

Will Lyman, Meara Mahoney Gross

10/23 at 8pm Et/Pt

Courtney Bennett (Abigail Klein), a former US figure skating hopeful, runs the city’s public skating rink but when the Mayor (Will Lyman) announces its closing,...

Christmas might not be until December, but some networks are slapping on their mittens and gearing up for the holiday season as early as October.

Families often find themselves gathered around the TV binging some of Hallmark or Lifetime’s latest Christmas-themed films, and this year is no exception. With people around the country encouraged to stay indoors and avoid crowded locations, Variety breaks down a list of feel-good Christmas movies to tune into this year.

As part of Lifetime’s “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” holiday movie slate, the channel will premiere 30 original TV movies beginning Oct. 23 and running through mid-December. In its efforts to diversify the stories it showcases, Lifetime said it worked with GLAAD and Cape (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) for its first-ever LGBTQ-led film “The Christmas Setup” and “A Sugar & Spice Holiday” centering on an Asian American family.

More films will be added to the list as networks announce them.

Holiday season specialist John Stimpson (Christmas a La Mode) directs the project.

Blue Fox Entertainment, fielding interest from Efm buyers on its Zazie Beetz drama Still Here, has launched sales on holiday romance Christmas On Ice starring Abigail Klein from Glow, which has just gone into production

The story from Off Camera Entertainment centres on a female former ice skating champion battling the impending closure of the public skating rink to make way for an indoor skating venue proposed by a dynamic entrepreneur (Ryan Cooper from Rough Night).

Holiday season specialist John Stimpson (Christmas a La Mode) directs the story,...

The Haunted Comedy is a genre that probably reached its height in the 1940s with movies like Abbott and Costello's Hold that Ghost.

There was another wave of them during the 1980s with Haunted Honeymoon starring Gene Wilder and  Gilda Radner, and High Spirits with Steve Guttenberg and Daryl Hannah.

To be clear, a haunted comedy is not the same as the horror comedies of the 90s like the Scream spoofs of the Scary Movie franchise. 

Ghost Light is a comedy first, and one that deals with the goofy antics of the theater crowd.

Tempting Fate Review: Mistakes Were Made! 

It's through their idiosyncracies and superstitions that the haunting gets explored.

If you didn't know, one of those superstitions is that the play, Macbeth, is cursed. You can't say the title lest the entire production get cursed.

Quoting lines before the production is also verboten, especially when noting the witches incantations.

In today’s film news roundup, Jessica Lowndes stars in a romantic comedy, Leslie Linka Glatter and Paul Schrader are honored, Spike Lee is presenting Denzel Washington with AFI’s award, and “Ghost Light” and “Satanic Panic” get acquired.

Castings

Jessica Lowndes is starring in and executive producing the musically inspired romantic comedy “Over the Moon,” which is beginning production in Vancouver, Variety has learned exclusively.

Lowndes wrote the script and the original songs and score along with music producer Evan White. She portrays a matchmaker who agrees to set up her best friend, played by Wes Brown, in hopes of furthering her career. As she comes closer to her goal, however, she realizes he has been her perfect match all along. Christie Will Wolf is directing.

AFI Awards

The American Film Institute will confer Doctorate of Fine Arts degrees honoris causa upon Leslie Linka Glatter and Paul Schrader.

They...

Giant Pictures has picked up North American rights to Ghost Light, a supernatural comedy about a theater production of Macbeth that unleashes a Shakespearean curse.

Directed by John Stimpson under his H9 production banner, the film stars Cary Elwes, Tom Riley, Roger Bart, Carol Kane, Shannyn Sossamon and Danielle Campbell. Stimpson wrote and produced Ghost Light with Geoffrey Taylor.

The dark comedy centers on a disgruntled actor who disregards the superstition surrounding Shakespeare’s Macbeth and unwittingly unleashes the play's legendary curse on the troupe with tragic consequences. Elwes plays an inept former soap star with deep pockets in a theater troupe,...

Giant Pictures has picked up North American rights to Ghost Light, a supernatural comedy about a theater production of Macbeth that unleashes a Shakespearean curse.

Directed by John Stimpson under his H9 production banner, the film stars Cary Elwes, Tom Riley, Roger Bart, Carol Kane, Shannyn Sossamon and Danielle Campbell. Stimpson wrote and produced Ghost Light with Geoffrey Taylor.

The dark comedy centers on a disgruntled actor who disregards the superstition surrounding Shakespeare’s Macbeth and unwittingly unleashes the play's legendary curse on the troupe with tragic consequences. Elwes plays an inept former soap star with deep pockets in a theater troupe,...

If you spend enough time in the theater, you're bound to pick up a few superstitions. "Break a leg," always keep the Ghost Light burning, and it's "The Scottish Play" not Macbeth, thank you very much. If you fail to honor the traditions, you're show might just go to shit... or worse. Such is the set up for the new dark comedy Ghost Light, which finds a troupe of theater actors besieged by "witches, ghosts and murder-mayhem" after an actor decides the superstitions are just a bunch of baloney. Directed by John Stimpson, Ghost Light stars …...

Film Independent’s Los Angeles event boasts 42% female-directed entries.

Film Independent’s La Film Festival has unveiled the line-ups for five of its sections, with Gregory Dixon’s Olympia, Alex Moratto’s Socrates and Linda Midgett’s Same God among the world premieres.

The festival, which runs from September 20 to 28 this year in Los Angeles, announced 40 features, 41 shorts and 10 episodic shorts from a total of 26 countries.

In competition categories, 42% of the festival titles are directed by women and 39% by people of colour, said Film Independent, the non-profit that also produces the Spirit Awards.

Scroll down for full line-up

Jennifer Cochis,...

The La Film Festival has placed a heavy emphasis on diversity in its competition film slate, with 42% of the films directed by women and 39% helmed by people of color.

The 24th edition of the festival is also positioning itself as an event for unveiling lesser-known talent. It will take place Sept. 20-28 as it moves from its traditional June slot to the fall awards season.

The Los Angeles event follow the Venice International Film Festival, which begins in late August; the Telluride Film Festival, which runs over Labor Day; and the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, which starts on Sept. 6. The festival will end just as the New York Film Festival begins.

“Our mission of finding fresh new voices from different geographical and cultural axes remains true,” said L Film Festival director Jennifer Cochis. “These storytellers are united by their ability to transport, impact and inspire audiences with the power of their craft.

Forty feature films including 24 world premieres highlight the official La Film Festival competition lineup in the fest’s move into the crowded fall festival corridor, away from their previous early-summer perch.

Among the movies in competition is the highly regarded Swedish film Border (Grans) from director Ali Abbasi, a Neon pickup out of Cannes that took the top prize in that festival’s No. 2 competition, Un Certain Regard. It is listed as a “California Premiere,” which means it likely will show up first in Telluride, Toronto or both before Laff, which runs September 20-28. It will play in the World Fiction Competition across a field of categories that also include U.S. Fiction, Documentary, La Muse, Nightfall. Short Films, and Episodes: Indie Series from the web.

“Our mission of finding fresh new voices from different geographical and cultural axes remains true,” Laff Director Jennifer Cochis said. “These storytellers are united by their ability to transport,...

For its 24th edition, Film Independent’s newly configured Los Angeles Film Festival has revealed its first fall lineup (September 20 – 28), the second under the leadership of Festival Director Jennifer Cochis. The date moves Laff into awards season and direct competition with AFI Fest (November 8 – 15), the last of the fall festivals. This year’s Laff program includes 40 feature films, 41 short films, and 10 short episodic works representing 26 countries. Across the competition categories 42 percent of the films are directed by women and 39 percent are directed by people of color.

The festival remains committed to a diverse lineup of feature films, shorts and episodic series for its U.S. Fiction (“original voices with distinct visions from emerging and established American independent filmmakers”), Documentary (“character-driven non-fiction films from the U.S. and around the world”), World Fiction (“unique fiction films from around the world by emerging and established filmmakers”), La Muse (“fiction and documentary films...

For its 24th edition, Film Independent’s newly configured Los Angeles Film Festival has revealed its first fall lineup (September 20 – 28), the second under the leadership of Festival Director Jennifer Cochis. The date moves Laff into awards season and direct competition with AFI Fest (November 8 – 15), the last of the fall festivals. This year’s Laff program includes 40 feature films, 41 short films, and 10 short episodic works representing 26 countries. Across the competition categories 42 percent of the films are directed by women and 39 percent are directed by people of color.

The festival remains committed to a diverse lineup of feature films, shorts and episodic series for its U.S. Fiction (“original voices with distinct visions from emerging and established American independent filmmakers”), Documentary (“character-driven non-fiction films from the U.S. and around the world”), World Fiction (“unique fiction films from around the world by emerging and established filmmakers”), La Muse (“fiction and documentary films...

Julie Delpy is in final negotiations for a starring role in Moody Street Pictures' psychological thriller The Legend of Lucy Keyes. Massachusetts-based writer-director John Stimpson will direct. The actress has also signed on to star opposite Sharon Stone, Chloe Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and Jessica Lange in Jim Jarmusch's new untitled project. She will lense Jarmusch's film, then segue to Lucy Keyes, which is inspired by a well-known legend in central Massachusetts. The picture chronicles the chilling experiences of the Cooley family, who flee the city for a quieter life in rural New England. They move into a home where, 250 years earlier, the Keyes family experienced the tragic loss of their daughter, who went missing in the nearby woods.