Heavy/Hallmark Rachel Skarsten and Andrew Walker in 2023's "Christmas Island," written by Samantha Herman
Samantha Herman has always been a big fan of Hallmark Christmas movies, but now the L.A.-based screenwriter gets to help create them.
When “Christmas Island” starring Andrew Walker and Rachel Skarsten premieres on November 11, 2023, it will be the 11th movie Herman has written for the network. Most of her movies have been part of Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas lineups, including 2022’s “A Fabled Holiday” and “Our Italian Christmas Memories.”
“I’ve been watching these movies my whole life,” Herman told Heavy. “That’s how I celebrate Christmas. I’m Jewish, so this is my Christmas. I love it.”
Since selling her first script to Hallmark, for 2018’s “Mingle All the Way” starring Jen Lilley and Brant Daugherty, Herman has mastered the art of crafting the kind of scripts Hallmark executives and viewers love. That includes knowing all the unwritten rules for what makes a perfect Hallmark Christmas movie.
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HallmarkRochelle Aytes and Mark Taylor in 2020’s “A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado,” written by Samantha Herman
There’s a reason Hallmark is what Advanced Television calls the “holiday programming ratings juggernaut” year after year: its writers, producers and stars are all well-versed in what’s needed to create a cozy, comforting, smile-inducing Christmas movie.
Hallmark star Paul Campbell, who’s also become one of the network’s top screenwriters, told E! News in 2021, “What Hallmark has done so successfully is bring movies with a certain tone and a certain feeling that leaves people feeling like they got what they came for. If you stray too far in any direction it can be kind of jarring and sometimes it doesn’t necessarily suit the network or it doesn’t necessarily suit the tone of the movie.”
In 2017, Hallmark execs gave Herman a sample script and tips for tweaking her “Mingle All the Way” draft to adhere to their needs, from timing to scenery, which she said was eye-opening and fascinating.
“At a very granular level,” she recalled, “I didn’t know how to put in commercial breaks. I didn’t know that was a thing…or the sweet spot of the length, all those technical details.”
Herman also quickly learned that character development was critical for Hallmark.
She explained, “I didn’t realize that they really wanted to see backstory (for) both of the leads — what led them to this point — and really finely tune the arc where they impact each other positively and come together.”
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HallmarkLuke Macfarlane and Erin Krakow in 2019’s “Sense, Sensibility & Snowmen,” written by Samantha Herman
In addition to delivering a succinct and meaningful storyline, Herman told Heavy there are also many scene details to consider when writing Hallmark Christmas movies.
“Very random things that I wouldn’t think of like, ‘Don’t put in tinsel because it’s cumbersome for production design,'” she said. “Caroling can be concerning if you don’t have someone (in the cast) who can sing. So, just really nitty gritty production things that I didn’t think of initially.”
Another consideration, Herman said, is that every act — or segment — “has to have at least one kind of signature Christmas event.” That might mean there’s an ice skating scene, and then a scene in which the characters are baking gingerbread cookies, and a bigger finale scene like a Christmas party.
And no matter what’s happening, Herman quipped, there must be “an explosion of decor at all times.”
Sometimes scenes Herman has included in a script get cut due to logistics, she said. For instance, a snowball fight may not be possible if the movie’s being filmed in July or a horse-drawn carriage may be hard to find for a day of filming.
While the rules were pretty “rigid” when Herman first started writing for Hallmark, she said they have relaxed over the last couple of years to allow for more comedy and plot twists. That echoes what other writers and stars have celebrated about Hallmark’s evolving creative direction.
The 2022 success of comedies like “Three Wise Men and a Baby” and “Haul Out the Holly” told executives that Hallmark’s fans were ready for a wider variety of feel-good movies.
Lisa Hamilton Daly, Hallmark’s EVP of programming, told Decider in February, “We have a core audience who loves what we do, but you’re eventually just doing a version of the same movie over and over again. You want to break out and do something different once in a while. We’re really cognizant of the fact that we want to keep our longtime fans happy, but they actually seem to love the new stuff we did.”
Screenwriter Samantha Herman Says a ‘Chance Meeting’ With Jen Lilley Turned Into Her Big Break
HallmarkJen Lilley and Brant Daugherty in 2017’s “Mingle All the Way,” written by Samantha Herman
The first rule of becoming a Hallmark Christmas movie writer, Herman told Heavy, is that there are actually no rules on how to make it happen.
“I always thought there was a very traditional path,” Herman told Heavy, adding that her way in was actually a “circuitous and random road,” calling the landscape “the wild west” for screenwriters right now.
After trying unsuccessfully to sell her script idea for “Mingle All the Way” to a production company, and without an agent to represent her, Herman wasn’t sure how to get it seen by the powers that be at Hallmark.
That is, until she had a chance meeting in early 2017 with Lilley, then a soap star who was weeks away from appearing in her first Hallmark movie, “A Dash of Love.”
“I happened to meet Jen Lilley at a party at Sundance in 2017,” Herman explained, adding that she’d seen Lilley in an ad for the new movie, so she knew she was connected to Hallmark.
“I met her just socially,” Herman continued. “I was with an actor friend. He saw an actor friend of his and that friend was with Jen. So it was just, like, a very rando connection and I just talked to her about (the script). Just for small talk, not with an agenda. And luckily for me, she took an interest.”
Herman knew that Lilley might easily forget about their conversation, since so many people pitch ideas at film festivals like Sundance. But she was pleasantly surprised when Lilley not only remembered their meeting but read the script, and then asked if she could send it into a producer. That producer liked the premise and submitted it — with Herman’s approval — to Hallmark, which greenlit the project. The movie debuted, starring Lilley, in 2018.
Seven years in, Herman told Heavy that developing and writing movie ideas for Hallmark never gets old for her. Each script she writes, she said, reminds her that “true love is out there” and gives her a chance to spread a bit of joy.
“I hope people like the new slate (of movies), ‘Christmas Island’ included,” she said. “And I hope that in a dark time in the world right now, it can maybe take the edge off for a minute.”