News

In the Hallmark Movie Premiere, Undercover Holiday, Bookish librarian Whitney (Rachel Skarsten), raised in a household obsessed with safety, never imagined she’d trade Dewey Decimals for danger. A comical case of mistaken identity throws her into the chaotic world of undercover FBI work when she’s accidentally paired with Special Agent Josh (Corey Sevier). Now, instead […]

Undercover Holiday Hallmark Movie Premiere Saturday October 26...

Exclusive: Cineflix Productions, the company behind Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Midnight Cowboy feature doc, has new representation.

The company has signed with Gersh. The deal includes unscripted programming and selected scripted projects. Cineflix was previously repped by APA.

The agency will work closely with J.C. Mills, President and Head of Content at Cineflix Productions, who joined the company in 2020.

The signing comes less than a month after Gersh bolstered its nonfiction credentials after acquiring the alternative and digital departments of A3.

Cineflix is behind series such as Air Crash Investigation for National Geographic International and Smithsonian, which is now in its 24th season and American Pickers for History, which will be celebrating its 400th episode. Cineflix was also the original producer behind HGTV’s Property Brothers.

Its recent push into feature docs started with Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Midnight Cowboy, which screened at...

Cineflix Productions has promoted executive producer Jeff Vanderwal to VP, scripted, reporting into J.C. Mills, president and head of content.

Based in Toronto, Vanderwal sources, develops and oversees the production of scripted series and movies for the division. Since moving to the scripted team in 2018, Vanderwal has developed and produced a range of projects including Canadian Screen Awards -winning “I Was Lorena Bobbitt” and “Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey,” along with crime thrillers “Stolen by Their Father” and “Left for Dead: The Ashley Reeves Story.”

Vanderwal also produced music-based holiday movies “Undercover Holiday” for Hallmark Channel and Lifetime’s “Miracle in Motor City,” starring Tia Mowry and Motown legend Smokey Robinson. Vanderwal’s latest movie “Bad Behind Bars: Jodi Aria” recently premiered on Lifetime in the U.S. and Canada. He is currently developing a crime series based on the acclaimed Wakeland novels by Vancouver author Sam Wiebe.

Hallmark Christmas movies remain as cozy as ever, with tree-lighting, cookie-decorating and magical snowfall still the currency of the realm. But since the arrival of Wonya Lucas as the new CEO of Hallmark Media (formerly Crown Media) in 2020, the network’s offerings have branched out in many ways: Lots more diversity, of course — including, this year, Hallmark’s first holiday romance centered on a same-sex relationship and the network’s first film focused on Kwanzaa — but also new and different plots.

The memes show no sign of dying, but the movies themselves don’t always match the traditional roadmap. Two of this year’s new movies didn’t end with a kiss, a change previously unthinkable in Hallmark-land.

How do I know all this? Because I watched all 43 new 2022 Hallmark holiday movies (including the three that premiered in July on Hallmark Channel and the nine that premiered on Hallmark Movies...