For some Utah filmmakers, Christmas came earlier than usual this year–a lot earlier.
Candlelight Media Group, distributor of Emma Smith: My Story, began production this past January on a new holiday movie, Christmas Angel. The film stars Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award winner Bruce Davison (X-Men and Runaway Jury), KC Clyde (The Best Two Years) and Kari Hawker (The Dance).
Christmas Angel tells the story of Ashley (Hawker), a lonely single woman whose best friends are her dog, Dash, and Nick (Davison), an elderly neighbor. Nick has a secret: he’s filthy rich. But he doesn’t use his money on himself–instead, he uses it to help those in his community that are less fortunate. Every Christmas he acts as a “Secret Santa,” committing random and premeditated acts of kindness, and this year he has enlisted Ashley to help him. A well-meaning reporter with somewhat shady ethics named Will (Clyde) catches wind of the “Secret Santa,” and has now set his sights on Ashley to spill the beans about Nick’s covert gift-giving operations. The film is directed by Brian Brough, who has directed the LDS films such as Beauty & the Beast, Rescued, and Turn Around.
While Christmas Angel is his first non-LDS directorial effort, he knows not to stray too far from his core demographic. “Although it’s not an overtly Mormon movie,” said Brough, “there are themes of charity and following Christ that members of the Church will definitely recognize and relate to. It’s highly accessible to people of all faiths and beliefs.”
Co-writer/producer Brittany Wiscombe was thrilled to get a Hollywood actor like Davison in a substantial role. “We wanted to find the right person to play Nick, and we were very fortunate to get someone like Bruce,” she said. “He raised the bar for us in terms of our production going from ‘small production’ to something that can reach broader audiences.”
Christmas Angel recently finished shooting and is currently in post-production. Candlelight Media anticipates a DVD release in late 2009.