McKellar (left) and Parton (right) | Photos: Crown Media/Courtesy

First the Hallmark took you to Graceland for the holidays, and now they’re heading to Dollywood!

That’s right, Dolly Parton is bringing her iconic Tennessee theme park to the Hallmark Channel for an all-new original holiday movie starring Danica McKellar.

McKellar will star as Rachel Lewis, a single mom and award-winning Broadway producer who learns investors have mismanaged her theatrical holiday extravaganza into bankruptcy, which forces the show to close before opening night. When a friend from Tennessee tells Rachel about an opportunity to produce a show for the 20th anniversary of the Smoky Mountain Christmas Festival at Dollywood, she simply can’t pass it up! However, there’s always a catch, isn’t there? In this case, Rachel will have to work alongside Luke Haman, Dollywood’s entertainment director who plans to use the show as stepping stone to advance his own career.

Durance (left), Darnell-Martin (center) and Dunne (right). | Photos: Crown Media/IMDb

It will be another few months before UPtv rolls out the movie lineup for their annual Uplifting Christmas Movies programming event, but I’ve already stumbled upon several movies in production for the network that I wanted to share with you.

ROCK AND ROLL CHRISTMAS
According to IBTimes and Beverley Mitchell‘s recent Facebook Live chat, the former “7th Heaven” star, who lead the holiday film “Hometown Christmas” last year for Lifetime, will be returning to her musical roots in “Rock and Roll Christmas”. If you watched Mitchell on “7th Heaven” as it aired like I did, you won’t be surprised to know the actress is also a singer and released a country album back in 2007; she event featured her single “Angel” in the series finale of the show.

Well, after a long hiatus, in “Rock and Roll Christmas”, Mitchell will play one half of an estranged mother/daughter country music duo who reunite after a decade to release a Christmas single once a video of them goes viral. Now, they’re in need of forgiveness and a little holiday magic to write a song that captures the spirit of the season and brings their family closer.

Mitchell teased on her Facebook Live chat, “I’m gonna be back in the recording studio to record some original music for this film.” How exciting is that?!