After 3 'Graceland' movies, will Hallmark make another Memphis movie? | Know Your 901
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Today's column has been crafted in response to the plaintive cry of a devotee of the Hallmark Channel's Christmas movies...
Will Hallmark make another Memphis movie?
This year, Hallmark produced 42 new holiday feature films, for the Hallmark Channel, the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel and the Hallmark Movies Now streaming service. The movies began Oct. 20 and continue through Dec. 21.
Some of the titles are so generic it's a shock they were still available: "Checkin' It Twice" ("a journeyman hockey player falls for a real estate agent," says Hallmark); "To All a Good Night" ("small-town photographer" encounters "mystery man"). Others are more specific: "Flipping for Christmas" (more real estate agents, "flipping" houses at Christmastime); "Never Been Chris'd" ("BFFs" reconnect with a "high school crush" named Chris). Others are inexplicable: "Catch Me If You Claus" matchmakes "a news anchor who's getting her big break" and "an intruder claiming to be Santa's son."
Other movies suggest Santa isn't the only jolly old elf prone to travel around the globe during the holidays. "A Merry Scottish Christmas" debuts Nov. 18, while "My Norwegian Holiday" premieres Dec. 1. Less close to the North Pole, North Carolina is the setting for the Nov. 26 time-travel romance "A Biltmore Christmas," centered on the historic Biltmore Estate.
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One destination missing from the lineup is Memphis. Which is perhaps no surprise: If you were Lacey Chabert, where would you rather spend the holidays, Scotland and Ireland or Shelby County?
Back when such concerns as COVID and the SAG-AFTRA strike weren't even gleams in Anthony Fauci's or Fran Drescher's eye, Memphis was the setting for three Hallmark Channel movies filmed here in relatively rapid succession (and with more than a modicum of movie magic, as crews shooting in July used fake-snow machines and other tricks to transform Elvis Presley's estate into an apparent winter wonderland).
The first of the Hallmark Memphis movies was "Christmas at Graceland," which first debuted in November 2018. It was a hit, and it spawned a sequel, "Wedding at Graceland," which premiered the following summer, and then a winter 2019 spin-off, "Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays."
You may sense a pattern. The attraction for Hallmark was not so much "Memphis, the historic river town that was a birthplace of the blues"; it was "Memphis, where Elvis lived."
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe includes 33 films, and counting. So far, Tom Cruise has undertaken seven impossible missions on the big screen. Even Stephen King's short story "Children of the Corn" has inspired 11 features.
But Hallmark, which apparently is peripatetic as well as formulaic by design, gave Memphis and Graceland a pass after movie No. 3, jilting the Bluff City for the likes of the Music City ("A Nashville Christmas Carol") and even Pigeon Forge ("Christmas at Dollywood").
Of course, in the film-and-television production industry as well as in the hearts of the romantically inclined, hope springs eternal. So it's possible that Hallmark may one day return. But a call to a Hallmark executive recently confirmed what seems obvious: At this time, the Hallmark Channel has no plans to make another Memphis movie. Even though "Gee Whiz, It's Christmas" starring Carla Thomas as Mrs. Claus is right there, waiting for them...
In any event, the Elvis/Hallmark relationship lives on, at least at Graceland. As part of the attraction's annual "Holiday Lighting Weekend" (so named for Thursday night's ceremonial flipping-of-the-Christmas-lights switch), Graceland is hosting a Hallmark double feature at the Guest House Theater inside the hotel, the Guest House at Graceland. "Christmas at Graceland" screens at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, followed by "Christmas at Graceland: Home for the Holidays" at 9 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit graceland.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Will Hallmark make another movie in Memphis, Tennessee?
