Heavy/Hallmark Hallmark star Alison Sweeney
When “One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery” premieres on Hallmark Mystery on April 5, 2024, it will mark Hallmark star Alison Sweeney‘s ninth time starring as the crime-solving bakery owner. But making this installment of the series has come with a new level of nerves for the actress, since it’s also the first movie she’s ever written.
Though Sweeney has long been involved in choosing the direction of each movie, serving as a producer on each one, she has said in recent interviews that she never expected to become a screenwriter on the franchise — and that the new responsibility felt daunting at times.
She’s hopeful, though, that viewers will love the finished product, which also features a new partner in crime-solving for her character, played by longtime Hallmark star Victor Webster.
Alison Sweeney Credits Her Dad for Inspiring Her to Write New ‘Hannah Swensen Mystery’
HallmarkAlison Sweeney in “One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery” premiering April 5, 2024, on Hallmark Mystery.
The “Hannah Swensen” franchise is based on a series of over 30 books written by Joanne Fluke since 2000. Sweeney, who is a producer of the movies with creative development partner Craig Baumgarten, told CinemaBlend on April 3 that she’s “the one who reads the novels” to decide what the next movie will be about.
“As a producer, I pour through Joanne Fluke’s great books and try to figure out what the highlights are that we want to feature in the next movie,” she told the outlet.
But while developing the next mystery, based on Fluke’s “Apple Turnover Murder,” Sweeney took a deeper interest in the storyline, thanks to her dad.
“Two or three movies ago, my dad was like, ‘That’s not enough evidence to convict someone. You don’t know that he did it,’” Sweeney told Us Weekly in February. “(He’s like), ‘Well, I’m just saying, I mean, that’s not real evidence.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I think he’s right. I have to develop the evidence, get proof.’”
Baumgarten noticed Sweeney’s newfound passion for ensuring the next mystery would be even more believable, and suggested she write the movie.
“As it was unfolding with this one, I had really taken ownership of the outline and what the pitch was going to be,” she told CinemaBlend. “Craig asked, ‘Would you ever consider writing one? You really have a handle on what you’re doing and how you want to tell the story.’ I felt a little overwhelmed when we first started talking about it, and then then, the more we discussed it, the more excited I got at the opportunity to write it.”
Sweeney continued, “Hallmark seemed very enthusiastic about it. That’s the amazing thing about working with Hallmark, how positive and supportive they are. They really gave me a chance to do it, and it all kind of went, knock on wood, pretty smoothly.”
Alison Sweeney Says She Watched YouTube Videos to Figure Out How to Write New Movie
Though Sweeney has starred in many Hallmark movies, she didn’t have experience writing one, so she did a little research to figure out how to get started, she recently told TVLine.
She said, “I watched some YouTube videos and read about how writers allocate their time, and once I had done the outline — developing the mystery and ‘Where are the clues being laid out?’ felt like the trickiest part — I dedicated myself to writing 10 pages a day.”
Sweeney also had to incorporate a new character into the mix. Though Cameron Mathison has played Swensen’s love interest, “Detective Mike,” since the franchise launched in 2015, he moved from Hallmark to Great American Family in late 2023. Webster, who co-starred with Sweeney in Hallmark’s “The Wedding Veil” trilogy, was cast as local prosecuting attorney Chad Norton.
She told TVLine, “Initially, when we approached Victor, I had to pitch him how I see this character: ‘How do I think he fits into Hannah’s world? And how is he going to be different (from Mike)?'”
“The lucky thing for me is I’ve worked with Victor before and I know him really well, and I had this vision in my mind of the guy he could be that would really be new to Hannah’s world,” Sweeney continued. “He’s a little more resistant to her charms, a little more about following protocol, rules. That was a really fun twist to bring into Hannah’s world.”
The hardest part of the whole writing process, Sweeney said, was letting others read her script.
“The most nerve-wracking part was when I finally finished it and had to send it out to other people to read it,” she told CinemaBlend. “That was the part where I was like, ‘Oh God. No. Now what? Other people are going to read this?’ I hadn’t prepared myself for that.”
“One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery” premieres on Hallmark Mystery on April 5 at 9 p.m. Eastern time.