Before February has officially ended, I wanted to publish one more Word on the Street post for the month. February has been a very busy month for me on 18 Cinema Lane. From participating in two blogathons to achieving 75 followers, I’ve had quite a bit of blog related content on my plate. Fortunately, I’ve found the time to publish the material that I wanted to publish before the month was over. Some of that material is the four movie news stories that are related to Hallmark and Lifetime. While three of these stories are speculation, one of them has been confirmed as a Hallmark movie. Like I’ve done with other Word on the Street stories, I will talk about each of these stories and share as much information as I could find. I will also share some of my insight about these stories. Now that’s start discussing these pieces of movie news!
Last month, in a Word on the Street post, I listed several movie titles that had not yet been attached to any networks. One of those titles was “Puppy Party Romance”. At the time, the project was about to go into production in early February. According to an article from Soap Opera News, it looks like this movie might be a Hallmark production! In the article, it is said that Jen Lilley has been attached to the project. Other cast members have also been announced; they are Christopher Russell, Lindsay Maxwell, Mark Brandon, and Bailey Skodje. Christie Will Wolf has been attached to this movie as the director and Navid Soofi is the film’s producer. When I visited Jen Lilley’s IMDB filmography page, this movie was listed as “For the Love of Dogs”. As of February and early March 2019, Hallmark has not confirmed or denied that “Puppy Party Romance” is their movie. But, it wouldn’t be surprising if this ended up being a Hallmark film. Two years ago, Jen starred in Eat, Play, Love, a Hallmark movie where dogs played a key role in the story. No matter which network airs this movie, I think we’ll hear an announcement about it sooner or later.
If you want to check out the references that I mentioned, visit Jen Lilley’s IMDB page or this link:
https://www.soapoperanews.net/2019/02/days-of-our-lives-alum-jen-lilley-cast.html
In that same Word on the Street post from last month, another movie that I mentioned was “Web of Dreams”. At the time, the film was in production until February 11th. Recently, I found this project listed on Max Lloyd-Jones’ IMDB filmography page. Not only has Max been attached to “Web of Dreams”, but there are other Hallmark stars that have been cast in this film, such as Keenan Tracey and Cindy Busby. While looking at the IMDB page for this movie, I noticed that the film’s official writer is Virginia C. Andrews. When I visited her IMDB page, I discovered that she is known as V.C. Andrews, the author whose claim to fame was Flowers in the Attic. With this acquired knowledge, I did some research on Goodreads to learn more about “Web of Dreams”. It turns out that Web of Dreams is, indeed, one of V. C. Andrews’ novels and it is the fifth book in the Casteel series. I’ve never heard of this series until I learned more about this movie. However, I am familiar with V. C. Andrews. Even though I have never read her books, I have seen Lifetime’s adaptations of the Flowers in the Attic series and My Sweet Audrina. Let’s just say that those films are not “Hallmark appropriate”. Based on all the information I shared, it looks like “Web of Dreams”, as well as the Casteel series, could be a Lifetime presentation.
If you want to visit the reference that I mentioned, visit the IMDB page for “Web of Dreams”.
Speaking of Cindy Busby, I discovered on her IMDB filmography page that she has been cast in the movie, “Letter from My Mother”. This movie was another title that I shared in a Word on the Street post last month. Besides Cindy, the other cast members that have been attached to this project are Jordyn Ashley Olsen, Karen Holness, Jaime M. Callica, Heather-Claire Nortey, and Emma Oliver. While this film has not been given an official synopsis yet, Michael Scott has been listed as the film’s director. Michael has directed several movies for various networks, so it’s unclear, right now, which network “Letter from My Mother” could premiere on. When I first heard of this title, I thought that, maybe, it was a Hallmark Hall of Fame project. Because this movie doesn’t appear to be associated with Hallmark Hall of Fame, I’m wondering if “Letter from My Mother” could be a Mother’s Day themed story? I also wonder when we’ll hear any news about the next Hallmark Hall of Fame project.
If you want to visit the reference that I mentioned, visit the IMDB page for “Letter from My Mother”.
Two weeks ago, an Instagram account called joylenznews attached the hashtags #MessageInABottle, #hallmarkchannel, #hallmarkmovies, and #hallmark to a photo and video of Hallmark star, Bethany Joy Lenz. In the photo, there is a caption that says “Meet Abbey”, which implies that Bethany’s character could be named Abbey. In the video, not only does Bethany appear to be visiting a winery, the photo on the video says “The absolute best set! Nothing like the smell of oak barrels and wine in the air…oh, and hey @joylenz!” This means that a winery could play a role in this film’s narrative. When I clicked on the hashtag #MessageInABottle, two particular photos caught my attention. The first one was of Bethany at Hallmark’s Winter TCA Event. In this photo’s caption, which appears to come from Bethany’s official Instagram account, Bethany not only confirms that “Message In A Bottle” is a Hallmark Channel movie, but she also says that it will premiere during the “Spring Fever” line-up and that Andrew Walker will also be starring in the film. Andrew Walker, in a photo from his Instagram account, also confirmed that he and Bethany were going to star in “Message In A Bottle”. Hallmark has not yet announced this film’s release date.
If you want to visit the reference that I mentioned, visit the official Instagram account of joylenznews (at joylenznews).
What are your thoughts on these pieces of movie news? Which project sounds interesting to you? Let me know in the comment section!
Have fun at the movies!
Sally Silverscreen
18 Cinema Lane 