Hallmark News:
Hallmark is launching a new, hopefully improved streaming service in September, to take over for Hallmark Movies Now. It is being called
Hallmark Plus or
Hallmark+. The new streaming service will also see a cost increase. While Movies Now plans start at $59.99 a year or $5.99 a month, the new plans will start at $79.99 a year or $7.99 a month,
Variety reported.
The new service will have more new content: "a limited Christmas series called “Holidazed,” Variety reported. The series will be about six families who come together for the holiday. Erin Cahill, Holland Roden, John C. McGinley, Ian Harding, and Dennis Haysbert will be among the stars."
Also, confirmed this week:
"Inspired by the massive success of the Hallmark Channel‘s
Wedding Veil movie franchise and 2022’s
Three Wise Men and a Baby, Hallmark Media has unveiled its first male-dominated movie franchise,
The Groomsmen, starring Tyler Hynes, Jonathan Bennett, and B.J. Britt,
per Variety."
"
The Groomsmen movies — “First Look,” “Second Chances,” and “Last Dance” — will follow the “lives and romances of three longtime best friends” who stand up for each other at their weddings, Variety said. Bennett plays Danny, “a baseball coach with a heart of gold,” Britt plays Pete, a “kind-hearted pediatrician with a penchant for planning,” and Hynes plays Jackson, a “stylish and charming social media agent.”
The series & the Groomsman movie trilogy will NOT be shown on the regular Hallmark Channel to get people to sign up for the new streaming service.
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They didn't have very many movies last season as the Writers & Actors strikes killed the ability to make movies in the U.S.
Katie Leclerc and Ryan McPartlin are two of their normal stars. It seems strange to me that they'd pass on a movie made with both of them. I'm just speculating though.
