Although I agree with many of the criticisms laid against Hallmark movies, I absolutely understand their appeal...and perhaps importance. I understand the importance of love itself , of believing love is possible, of casting off cynicism, which like most negative paths, is too easy to tread.
While I do feel Hallmark movies are often relying just too heavily on formula, (yes, I saw the episode of THE SIMPSONS that spoofed them with deadly accuracy,) I feel with good writing, a balance can be found, with great entertainment, inspiration and hope as a the result.
Some outlines of mine for potential Hallmark movies are beneath. I hope that each of them gives the Hallmark audience what they are looking for, with perhaps a little more.
Sincerely,
Andrew Hawcroft
PS. Loglines for my 'regular' screenplays can be found upon the SCREENPLAYS / TV Page of this site.
CONSTANT COMMUNICATION
A romantic-comedy by Andrew Hawcroft
Outline
The year: 2097:
On the just-discovered planet of Callabrio, Space
Corps officer Gail Porter is manning the communications room of an isolated
station by herself, while her team mates travel to a familiar part of the
planet for scientific research purposes.
A terrible cosmic storm strikes the planet nearby, and
soon after, she is shocked to hear the voice of one Captain Daniel Parliament,
a fellow Space Corps officer on his way to join them, who has crash-landed a
number of miles away.
With his air running out, Daniel will have to walk
across the surface of this dark and largely un-researched planet.
Gail will be the voice in his ear, keeping his spirits
up and later, giving life-saving advice when Daniel encounters all manner of physical
challenges and alien threats on his journey to her.
Despite having no clue about what the other looks
like, through constant communication, Gail and Daniel develop a stronger and
stronger bond, and his arriving safely at the station matters on a deeper and
deeper level to the upbeat but lonely Gail.
Arriving safely is by no means certain though, for
something seems to be following Daniel in the dark…
THE
SHOP OF STORIES
A
romantic-drama by Andrew Hawcroft
(Outline)
Laura Tarrington is a jaded reporter for a tabloid,
something far removed from the career she had imagined for herself as a young
teenager.
On a daily basis, she is asked to report on the more
degrading and facile aspects of modern society, and it’s starting to have an
effect. She’s starting to become
somebody she doesn’t like very much.
Single, with no family to speak of, she is starting to
drink a little too much.
One cold night, she drinks a lot, and, despite
having become cynical by nature, she issues a heartfelt request to the Universe
to help her before things get worse…
Three nights later, as the mother of all rain storms
lashes the city, an assignment takes Laura through a part of the city she isn’t
familiar with.
Taking shelter from the rain in Canterbury Books, a
beautiful, old-fashioned bookshop, she instantly becomes struck with the
atmosphere of the place, and also with Oscar, the handsome and understanding
owner.
Night after night, Laura returns to the bookshop again
and again, and her relationship with Oscar develops into something beautiful,
transforming her whole life, giving her hope and energy and belief in the
future.
The only odd thing about Oscar is that he seems
reluctant to leave the store…
A VERY TALENTED CHRISTMAS
A romantic-comedy by Andrew Hawcroft
Outline
(Author's Note: This following film requires multiple original songs. I am a songwriter and occasional performer (Showreel upon Youtube.) I intend for my own songs to be used in A VERY TALENTED CHRISTMAS.
Songs such as A STRANGE KIND OF SOLDIER, CANDLE, EMILY, SHE FOUND ME, and I'M TRYING HARD NOT TO LOVE YOU can be found under my name upon Youtube, upon Soundcloud, and upon my official songwriting site. A link is beneath.)
ANDREW HAWCROFT SONGWRITING: https://andrewhawcroft1.wixsite.com/andrewhawcroftsinger
Olivia Oaken, a former child star, now grudgingly runs a low-end talent agency in Vancouver, whose client list consists of a motley crew of Z-list celebrities, deluded wannabes who might one day amount to becoming Z-list celebrities, and fist-eatingly awful variety acts who have been rejected by every other low-end talent agency in town.
Her one ‘success
story’...and the person single-handedly keeping her financially afloat…is Starry Knight, a moody
and entitled female pop star whom she discovered on the internet. Olivia patiently groomed her for stardom,
while being careful to protect her from the uglier aspects of the industry
that she herself became all too familiar with. Aspects that she barely
survived.
Then the rumbling
train of her management career comes to a crashing halt, when, one cold December
morning, she discovers that her pop star has been poached by the enormously
powerful, smooth-talking manager of a giant talent agency with a dubious track
record within the industry.
Heartbroken,
and genuinely fearful for her own future, that night Olivia stumbles into a low-lit
bar in a part of the city she has never been into before, to drown her sorrows.
There,
she discovers a male singer-songwriter playing his own songs on the piano, and
being largely ignored by the inebriated room.
Caledon ‘Cal’
Brant has his own troubled history, and as a consequence, is a man entirely
lacking in belief about his own abilities.
Together though,
the two of them begin to find that the other completes that part of their
character that is missing.
Professional
success begins to come from their partnership.
The damage that both Olivia and Cal have suffered begins to heal. Soon something more begins to develop.
But success…and
the money that can come with it…attracts attention.
Will
history repeat itself?
A romantic-drama by Andrew Hawcroft
Outline
Clara Goddard, a lonely single mother and her young
daughter, Gillian, are barely getting by, living in a tiny apartment, in a
dilapidated building, in an ‘economically-challenged’ part of the city. The approach of Christmas doesn’t help
matters.
When her beloved Gillian becomes sick, the only
solution Clara can think of to pay for her medication is to advertise for a
lodger to live in her own room, while she sleeps on the sofa. She does this despite a fiercely independent
streak in her nature, born of her past.
To her great surprise, soon after, one George Farmer, a
well-spoken, friendly and handsome man, shows up, claiming he needs a place to
live for one month while he finishes a construction project nearby. He offers more than the money she has asked
for, and she eagerly accepts.
The man seems a little reluctant to talk about his
past, and he seems to insist on paying for everything in cash, but in all other
aspects he is a wonderful addition to their home, and soon, powerful feelings
begin to grow in the heart of Clara, feelings she has begun to think she was no
longer capable of. Perhaps those
feelings are also in the heart of George.
Her life, for so long so colourless and devoid of intrigue
and laughter, begins to become something wonderful for herself and for Gillian.
But George is not what he seems, and the trust issues
that life has inflicted upon Clara through past hurts…especially regarding
men…remain painfully vulnerable.
THE STAGE HAND
A romantic-drama by Andrew Hawcroft
Outline
Gabriel Morton, a lonely and impoverished stage hand, working at one the most prestigious theatres in Chicago, spends most of his spare time caring for his beloved but ailing uncle Joseph, the only family Gabriel has.
What little time he has to himself is spent fantasising about the Hollywood actress, Jodie Shield, the girl of his dreams.
Shocked does not adequately describe his emotional
state, therefore, when it is announced that Jodie Shield will be making her
theatrical debut in a play taking place at the very theatre Gabriel works in.
Unfortunately, she is bringing her fiance’ with her….
THE
NINE LIVES OF CHRISTMAS
- One Final Tail
-
Treatment
Screen Story and Screenplay by Andrew
Hawcroft
A sequel to the film; ‘The Nine Lives of Christmas’
written by Nancey Silvers. Inspired by the novel by Sheila Roberts.
Things are going pretty great in the lives of
Marilee White and Zachary Stone. Almost exactly one year has passed since they first
met in the cat food aisle of their local market in Jamestown. Since then, they have officially moved in
together, with Zachary deciding not to sell the now-beloved home they both helped
to restore. Ambrose and Queenie are
probably officially a catty couple too.
They haven’t announced it as such, but then cats tend not to.
(Eg: In an opening scene; Marilee wakes up with a
smile on her face. Notices the bed
beside her is empty. Finds Zachary
working out in their makeshift home gym. She watches happily for a moment
before Zachary goads her into joining him in doing sit-ups. Still in her pyjamas,
Marilee manages two good ones and half of a third, before Zachary gallantly steps
in with a little assistance. Three done,
that’s enough body beautiful for Marilee.)
Indeed, early on, Zachary ruminates how differently
their lives might have turned out if he hadn’t rescued a certain cat from a
barking dog on his property. If he
hadn’t gone against his then-independent nature and taken Ambrose in.....and
quickly formed an attachment to him..... he might never have met Marilee the
way he did.
Marilee herself is preoccupied with the opening of
Ambrose House, her very own veterinary surgery, situated not far from her old
workplace; Bosley’s Pet Supply Store.
It’s a testing time.
The bank loan has covered the basics, but she is running the place solo,
apart from her best friend, Sarah, who is now her receptionist. She cannot even afford building insurance
until the place starts making money, and is operating on a shoestring budget.
Opening day
comes, and that budget stretches to precisely one party popper and two plastic
glasses of the world’s finest, cheapest champagne. The kind that comes from New
Jersey. From that point on, it’s Worry
City.
Meanwhile, Zachary, having overcome his
childhood-related insecurities about serious relationships, is blissfully
happy; to the point that his three friends at the fire station....Fire Chief
Sam, Mark and Ray....shamelessly make good-natured fun of him about his failure
to propose to her. They have taken to
writing the words ‘ASK HER!’ in all sorts of places around the fire station,
including messages left in the pockets of his uniform, writing it on the walls in
safety foam, writing it in his food....
Little do they know that Zachary does intend to
propose. He takes the step of going to
a jewellers and buying an engagement ring...a rather gaudy and flashy one...that
costs an enormous amount of money for a fire-fighter’s salary. Zachary bites the bullet and buys it
nonetheless, despite the store reminding him they do not do refunds.
He plans to propose to her over dinner that night,
marking the anniversary of their first meeting, with a small wedding planned
for Christmas Day. It is to be ordained by a local minister, and is to take
place at their favourite location; a quiet, enclosed park that contains a
beautiful fountain featuring the sculpture of a mermaid. Marilee has confessed that after her parents
died, she spent many hours sitting there, taking solace from the freedom and
passion expressed in the mermaid’s pose, wondering what her life would hold...and
perhaps wishing for what it finally did.
The wheels begin to fall off this train to Eternal Bliss
when, moments after sitting down to the afore-mentioned meal, the doorbell
rings.
Zachary’s parents, Nora and Arthur, still somehow
together after decades of marital disharmony, have shown up unexpectedly while
travelling through the area. They are
interested in meeting the girl that seems to have changed their son so
thoroughly.
It all goes downhill from there. Despite Marilee’s best efforts to set a
positive mood, the Stones are as comfortable together as a sparking power cable
and a puddle of petroleum. Seeing the
initial happiness of Zachary and Marilee seems to antagonise something un-noble
in their characters, and they begin to paint a picture of marriage that could
feature in a Stephen King novel.
After they leave,
Zachary loses his nerve about proposing, as his old insecurities begin
to rise again.
Marilee accidentally lets it slip how tight things are
financially for her at Ambrose House, and Zachary, most of his own savings
having gone on the non-returnable ring, is angry with himself for not being
able to help her.
Things don’t improve with the return of Blair, former
professional model and former beau of Zachary.
She is going through her own troubles, having been told more than once
lately that she is getting too old for modelling. Having nothing else to fall back on, she has
started to reluctantly manage her retired father’s pet store, drinking heavily.
This only fuels her resentment of the happiness that Zachary and Marilee have
found, both of whom she sees too often for comfort from her store.
Ambrose House, however, is starting to pick up. Marilee is particularly popular with the
kids, often using a hand puppet called Santa Paws to put nervous young pet
owners’ at ease.
One regular is Mrs Smith, owner of somehow-still-alive
Bootsy, plus Flotsam and Jetsam, Lancelot, Parkins, and numerous other
dogs. Mrs Smith is very rich, and is
regarded as a bit of a joke by other people in Jamestown. During one conversation, however, she lets
down her guard enough to tell Marilee some of her own horrifying and tragic
history....and her love for dogs becomes more understandable.
Marilee herself is finding true joy in her work, blissfully
unaware of Zachary’s aborted proposal, although The Question has been playing
on her mind for some time.
But...she reasons...who says the man has to do the
asking? It’s 2019 after all!
On an impulse, she decides to ask Zachary to marry her
that very day. She has not the money for
an engagement ring of her own, but Mrs Smith, from whom Marilee cannot keep the
idea, comes to the rescue. She gives
Marilee her own engagement ring, a truly beautiful thing. Marilee is stunned at this generosity, and
at first refuses it, but Mrs Smith says it is merely karma. Marilee has always been good to her while
others laughed at her behind her back, (she may be old but she’s no fool,) and
she can think of no better home for it than on the hand of the only person in Jamestown
who has shown any affection to her.
During the same day, however, just to pull the final plug on Cupid’s vital
signs, Zachary’s parents show up again, and Zachary has a tremendous fight with
them, letting rip about what it was like growing up with them arguing every
time they breathed, and how hard he has worked to not become like them. He tells them he never wants to see or hear
from them again. Devastated, for Zachary
was really the only thing they had to be proud of from their decades together,
the Stones leave, and Zachary is left in shock, but determined to hide it from
Marilee.
He goes to visit her at Ambrose House, where Marilee’s
sudden proposal of marriage comes at the worst possible time. When faced with it, Zachary cannot say yes,
leaving Marilee shocked, humiliated, and wondering what their future
holds. Her own insecurities about being
alone, which have been with her since her sister got married, come back in full
force. A distraught Marilee puts Mrs Smith’s engagement ring in a drawer.
About this time, a face from the past re-enters
Marilee’s life. John Day, Marilee’s
teenage boyfriend, arrives in Jamestown, having finally left the Marines, where
he attained the rank of Staff Sergeant.
He confesses that although he has no regrets, there is a point where a
man stops wanting to take and give orders, and to just live his own life. Over coffee, Marilee confesses most of her
attraction for him as a teenager was because of his love of animals and helping
people in general. John confesses that
in joining the Marines, he thought he was still helping people, but after the
things he has seen, he has had enough.
He wants to do things his way now.
Marilee is immensely proud of her old flame, and
impressed by his resolve to take charge of his life, but Zachary feels the
first pangs of jealousy, which are thoroughly and deliberately stirred by
Blair, who has caught onto all this. She
sees John Day as her way back into Zachary’s life, ridiculous though this may
seem.
Zachary and Marilee struggle to keep their
relationship on track. Zachary wants them to stay just the way they are, living
together with no commitments, just taking life as it comes, free and easy. Marilee, however, is finding it difficult to
get past his rejection of her, and Blair continues to make machinations to drive
the pair apart...with some success.
These ‘war games’ against the couple reach their apex
when Blair fakes an intimate encounter between John and Marilee, and Zachary
moves out, heartbroken, despite Marilee’s pleas of innocence.
That is when the impossible happens, and sitting by
their once-beloved fountain, Zachary is approached by his father, who has
tracked him down. Arthur, for the first
time perhaps in his life, has taken a good hard look at himself, and makes a
heartfelt apology to his son. He tells
him that Nora and he are together, not because of love, but because they were
too weak as people to be alone. That’s
not love. That’s dependency. But in his son, he sees a man who is stronger
than him, whose very career puts other people above his own needs. He sees
someone who is better than him in all respects, and even a jaded cynic like
himself can see what Zachary and Marilee have is special.
In that moment, Zachary realises he doesn’t care what
Marilee may or may not have done. He
wants her in his life.
He leaves to tell her so, but unfortunately runs into
a drunken Blair on the way home, and tells her he is going to marry Marilee as
planned, that he loves her and that’s the end of it.
Blair realises she has lost, or that she simply never
had a chance to begin with, and in a drunken rage, throws a flaming bottle of
spirits through the window of Ambrose House.
In seconds, the building is ablaze, and Blair becomes horrified at what
she has done.
Back at their home, Zachary rushes to tell Marilee how
he doesn’t care what the truth is, and that he loves her no matter what. This is not good enough for Marilee, who,
still battling her own insecurities, insists that he should know her well enough
to know she could never have done such a thing.
The next moment, however, Zachary gets the call that
Ambrose House is on fire. He rushes over
there, knowing that the building is not insured and that he has to save it if
he can.
Alongside Sam, Mark and Ray, he tackles the blaze as
best he can, but it’s too advanced. Against the advice of Sam, Zachary enters
the flaming building to retrieve Mrs Smith’s engagement ring from the drawer, when
part of the ceiling collapses on him, and, just as when he was a child, Sam
saves his life.
For a time, Zachary’s life hangs in the balance, as he
lies comatose in a hospital bed.
In the waiting room, a tearful Marilee is counselled
by Sam. He tells her how much Zachary
has changed because of knowing her, but how change still needs time, and
Zachary is still learning, despite having come so far. It is here that Marilee realises how much her
own fears have played a part in her behaviour.
Recalling Mrs Smith’s tragic back-story, she also realises how much she
has taken good things for granted lately.
She talks about how from the moment you wake up beside your loved one,
every minute after that is a gift. And
when you close your eyes at night, you say ‘Thank You’, because you got to
spend another day with the one you love.
Ambrose House is a smoking ruin, and not insured, but
Marilee hardly cares. Sam tells her to go home and get some rest.
Zachary finally wakes up in hospital to find a tearful
Blair there. She confesses it was she who started the fire, and has confessed
all to the police. After being detained, her father paid her bail, but her
court date is fast approaching. She pours out a heartfelt confession of all her
feelings of envy of his and Marilee’s happiness, how modelling had defined her
until she couldn’t get work anymore, and finally, she confesses it was she who
faked the relationship between John and Marilee. She has told Marilee everything.
Perhaps surprisingly, Zachary understands. He says he
realises how lucky he is to have found Marilee, how his own demons made him do
and think crazy things, and how sorry he is that Blair hasn’t found that
someone who could rescue her from herself.
Her confession, along with his own father’s apology, have woken Zachary
up to what matters, and to what has been going on inside him. He promises to speak on her behalf in court.
Sometime later, Sam enters and gives him Mrs Smith’s
engagement ring, which they found in his uniform. Little more needs to be said, and he soon
leaves....
.....allowing Marilee to enter. The two barely
exchange a word, just holding each other’s hands. Silently, Zachary places the engagement ring
on her finger. Marilee just nods and kisses him.
On Christmas Day, Jamestown is abuzz, but no place more so than the little park
with the fountain, where Marilee and Zachary, their friends and family around
them, are officially married.
Out of the blue, Mrs Smith, who has been invited,
shocks the couple to their core with a ‘wedding present’ of a blank cheque to
open another Ambrose House.
Sam quietly tells Zachary that he had wanted to wait
until Zachary was stronger before telling him, but his rescue of Zachary from
the burning building was his last, and a fitting one to end on. He has decided to retire, and wants Zachary
to be the new Fire Chief. When an
astonished Zachary accepts, Sam gives him a small wrapped box, containing his
own set of keys to the station.
Finally free from doubts and fears, Zachary and
Marilee kiss one more time under the kindly gaze of the mermaid in the fountain.
ENDING ON A HIGH NOTE
A romantic-comedy by Andrew Hawcroft
Outline
Growing up the only child of cold, high-achieving mother, young Diana Dane felt compelled to reject her artistic nature and, in an effort to keep things calm at home, pursued a career in accountancy.
Years later, living alone, largely friendless, she is a desperately lonely woman, her fastidious nature bordering on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Her days are entirely routine, consisting of nothing more than a series of practical accomplishments to be checked off.
However, when a shocking car accident wakes her up to how short and precious life is, she enrolls for singing lessons with Bill Castle, a local singing teacher.
Things progress well. After some initial conflict arising from years of protecting herself emotionally, an initial mutual respect and admiration is achieved. This itself begins to develop into something more fundamental, as barriers are lowered on both side.
The art of singing begins to free something in Diana. She becomes happier, more calm and at peace with herself, to the point of agreeing to enter a local singing competition.
As the date looms though, old insecurities begin to arise, not just in Diana, but in Bill as well...
