‘An Unexpected Christmas’
CT NATIVE’S FIRST HALLMARK MOVIE AIRS DURING ‘COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS’
Madison native Matt Brady has produced a number of projects under his MRB Productions company since it was founded in 2001. From producing the ESPY Awards for ESPN to Marvel’s Hero Project for Disney+, Brady’s work has spanned genres and digital platforms. Now, the producer had his first Hallmark Christmas movie debut during the network’s popular “Countdown to Christmas” series on Nov. 26.
Called “An Unexpected Christmas,” the film stars Bethany Joy Lenz, who previously played Haley James Scott on “One Tree Hill,” and Tyler Hynes, who has starred in other Hallmark movies such as “Roadhouse Romance” and “Sweet Carolina.” Hynes portrays Jamie, who heads home for Christmas without telling his family that he and girlfriend Emily (Lenz) broke up, according to Hallmark. Emily also arrives in town on a business trip, and Hallmark notes the two reconnect when Jamie offers her a deal: he helps her with her work project while she pretends to be his girlfriend through the holidays.
Brady’s work on the film is just the latest in a string of connections Hallmark Channel movies have to Connecticut. In the past several months, Christmas movies such as “Sugar Plum Twist” and “A Holiday in Harlem” have filmed in the Nutmeg
State. The movie “You, Me & the Christmas Trees” incorporated an Avon Christmas tree farm into its plot, and a Connecticut resident wrote the film, which also utilized the expertise of a UConn tree expert to ensure the storyline’s accuracy.
While “An Unexpected Christmas” has all the Hallmark qualities that viewers have come to know and love, Brady said the film strays slightly from the network’s typical formula.
“This one is a little bit more from the male’s perspective,” Brady said. “Most of the Hallmark stories are a bit more from the female’s perspective…We’re also really proud that we have a lesbian couple in our movie as one of the co-stars, so that was really exciting for me to be part of something that’s got diversity and inclusion”
Brady noted that the film also brought a Hallmark movie star behind the camera lens as the film’s writer. Canadian actor Paul Campbell, who has starred in Hallmark productions such as “Surprised by Love” and “A Godwink Christmas,” wrote the film in a romantic comedy style and enlisted Brady to bring it to life.
“I did some work on a Hallmark Channel award show called the Hero Dog Awards,” Brady recalled. “I was out to dinner with a friend, and they said ‘Oh, my friend has a script, and he wants to pitch it to Hallmark. Can you pitch it to them?’…They said yes, they wanted to develop it, and we worked on it for three years and came up with this beautiful film.”
Serving as executive producer on his first Hallmark film required doing some research ahead of production, Brady said, which involved watching “probably 30” of the channel’s movies.
“I have two little kids, and I had to watch a bunch of them to make sure I understood the format,” he said, noting that they typically follow a nine-act structure.
What he learned in the process beyond film’s formatting were the themes that tend to surface in each.
“They’re really wonderful programming that you can watch with a five year old and a nine year old,” he said. “The programming and their messages are about sorting out problems and love, and that’s really beautiful.”
What Brady didn’t realize is just how different working on a Hallmark movie would be in comparison to other productions he’s worked on.
“We shot up in Canada, and we were developing it for three years, they give us the green light and they have a very quick time to prep it,” he said. “It was less than a month to prep it, less than a month to shoot it and less than a month to edit it. So we only filmed it in September…and it aired Nov. 26.”
Of course, filming a holiday movie in September offered some challenges, according to Brady.
“We literally had a torrential, hurricane-level rainstorm one day when we were filming outside,” he said. “It was also 85-90 degrees some days and we’re filming a Christmas movie.”
While the heat and rain didn’t quite invoke the holiday season, Brady said that he hopes “An Unexpected Christmas” not only puts audiences in the holiday spirit, but also proves to be a treasured addition to the Hallmark Christmas movie lineup.
“You just never know which films are going to be the ones that are going to be the breakthrough that become the classic for years to come,” he said. “But one thing I can say about our film is that it’s really funny — and I think people need to laugh.”