Food Network and Discovery+ Enter Holiday Movie Business With ‘Candy Coated Christmas’ Featuring Ree Drummond
Food Network is teaming up with its sister streaming service Discovery+ to get into the holiday TV movie business with the cable channel’s first-ever scripted film, “Candy Coated Christmas.”
Though the movie, which features “The Pioneer Woman” star Ree Drummond in her first ever acting role, is a Food Network production, it will not air on the cable channel, instead being available only to Discovery+ subscribers when it debuts in November.
Here’s the official synopsis for “Candy Coated Christmas”:
Molly Gallant (Molly McCook), a Los Angeles-based marketing executive on top of the world, is planning a new business venture with her best friend and heading to the airport for her annual holiday father-daughter trip to Hawaii when she learns that the seed money she was counting on for her business has disappeared. Molly’s father (John McCook) suggests she visit the small town where her late mother grew up, as an old family home may be the key to the start-up money she needs. Packed for the beach, Molly arrives in snowy Peppermint Hollow, where the first person she meets is the owner of Bee’s Bakery, Bee (Ree Drummond), giving her a warm introduction to the friendly denizens that reside in the Peppermint Capitol of the world. The Winters family, Noah (Aaron O’Connell), Kim (Lee Garlington) and Dakota (Landry Townsend), currently renting the house Molly’s mother grew up in, invite her to stay with them and offer her a lost connection to her own childhood memories and the possibility for a newly ‘minted’ business begins to take shape.
The movie, which wrapped production earlier this month in Utah, is directed by Ellie Kanner (“Love and Sunshine”) and written by Kanner, Alex Yonks and Joey Plager. Kanner, Plager, Larry Grimaldi, Hannah Pillemer and Fernando Szew are executive producers.
“Candy Coated Christmas” marks the first project in a production deal between Food Network and Discovery+ parent Discovery, Inc. and production company MarVista Entertainment.
“’Candy Coated Christmas’ was so much fun to be part of; it had all the magical elements that make holiday movies so special,” Drummond said in a statement Wednesday. “Any initial nerves I felt about joining this project completely melted away when I stepped into the sweet, charming world of Peppermint Hollow!”
Kathleen Finch, chief lifestyle brands officer at Discovery, Inc, added: “Last year, nearly 60 million viewers watched Food Network between Halloween and New Year’s Day. Food Network fans live for the holidays, so creating a Christmas movie featuring one of our biggest stars is an exciting way to expand our offerings and to showcase an incredibly popular talent like Ree. We’ve created the kind of Christmas movie that only we can — it’s a perfect gift for our passionate fans.”
Variety first reported the “Candy Coated Christmas” news.
Read original story Food Network and Discovery+ Enter Holiday Movie Business With ‘Candy Coated Christmas’ Featuring Ree Drummond At TheWrap