Tichina Arnold stars in this holiday movie filmed in South Jersey. It debuts soon

The Jersey Shore has a starring role in an upcoming holiday movie.

Ventnor, Atlantic City, Longport, and Ocean City are among the South Jersey towns where “So Fly Christmas," an upcoming holiday movie, was shot earlier this year.

The film, which features Tichina Arnold, Tami Roman, Robert Christopher Riley, Jackée Harry, Laurissa Romain, Tommy Davidson and Michael Colyar, was written by Clarence Williams IV and directed by Terri Vaughn and is set to debut on BET+ on November 23.

“So Fly Christmas” is produced by Worldwide Entertainment & Media in association with Choice Films for BET+. It is produced by Pierre Romain, Julie Solinger and Marc Johnson.

The movie's production team spent time in April filming at a home in Longport. They later shot scenes at a shop in Ocean City.

Film crews were also spotted in the St. Leonard’s Tract neighborhood of Ventnor, an area that features historic homes with very unique architecture. Some of the film was also shot at The Showboat casino in Atlantic City.

In other words, the Jersey Shore got a lot of love in the film, which features many locations, homes and businesses in the South Jersey towns.

But why?

“We wanted to shoot in Jersey because Governor (Phil) Murphy and the entire film commission in New Jersey is extremely helpful, they redid the tax credit,” Pierre

Romain, the producer, said The New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission's tax incentive program played a role in filming here.

"Marc Johnson, one of our other producers, said ‘hey, I was going to shoot this film in Atlantic City a couple of years ago, we should really consider shooting there,'" he said in an interview with the Courier Post.

“The Showboat, where we shot part of the film, they really catered to us. Everyone in Jersey was just very excited about it. That’s kind of how we ended up in South Jersey because the tax credit incentive was a big part of it."

What is ‘So Fly Christmas’, filmed in South Jersey, about?

Romain said the film has “an incredible cast.” Arnold is well known to audiences from “Martin”, “Everybody Hates Chris” and “The Neighborhood,” but there are other familiar faces, including Harry, Davidson, Colyar and Roman, who became familiar to viewers from reality television shows such as “Real World” and “Basketball Wives”.

He said the film has comedy, romance, friendship. All of the above.

Living his dream in film South Jersey filmmaker, director has hit movie on Amazon Prime Video

"Wyvetta, Tichina Arnold’s character, has basically been left at the altar,” he explained. “She loses her joy of Christmas. Her friends in solidarity with her decide they’re going to swear off men.”

When Wyvetta starts to build a romance with a new man she's reluctant to share it with friends.

“A lot of twists and turns,” Romain explained. “Eventually she gets caught. And at the heart of it, it’s really about their friendship, the strength of friendship and love.”

Clarence Williams IV told Deadline.com that “writing this film has been a dream come true. I’m immensely grateful for the opportunity provided to me by Worldwide Entertainment and Media and BET to contribute to a legacy of storytelling within a network that has long celebrated the richness of Black culture.”

Romain looks forward to the film’s debut on BET+, which is the network’s streaming platform.

“It’s a great network to work with,” he added. “It’s nice to have a community of people that you work with that you trust. It’s nice to be able to work with African-American talent. This guy (Williams IV) was a first-time writer, who is just really gifted and probably most places wouldn’t have had the opportunity. He and I met through social media. We became friends. He would send me stuff all the time. And I read this script, and I thought, oh it’s really nice. I sent the script in, they liked it. We worked to be able to make it into a reality.”

Celeste E. Whittaker is a news features reporter for the Courier Post, Daily Journal and Burlington County Times. The South Jersey native started at the CP in 1998 and has covered the Philadelphia 76ers, college and high school sports and has won numerous awards for her work. Reach her by email at cwhittaker@gannettnj.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Ventnor, Atlantic City are front and center in new BET+ holiday movie