Hallmark will begin its annual Countdown to Christmas movie slate in mid-October, and its latest film made in partnership with the NFL will anchor the opening weekend.
Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story is set to premiere Oct. 17 on Hallmark Channel. It will be the tentpole movie for the first weekend of the Christmas schedule; the full lineup of movies is set to be announced next week.
A Bears Love Story, which filmed in Chicago in July, stars Lyndsy Fonseca and Robert Buckley, both Hallmark veterans. The cast also includes Marsha Mason, Barbara Alyn Woods, Khary Payton Tamera Mowry-Housley, Marilu Henner, Jake Connelly and Dyon “Mojo” Brooks. Bears coach Ben Johnson and players Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland also make appearances, as do former Bears stars Mike Singletary, Charles “Peanut” Tillman and Dan Hampton along with Connie Payton, the wife of Bears legend Walter Payton.
Buckley plays Matt, a Chicago firefighter who has
Buckley plays Matt, a Chicago firefighter who has been trying to get local media to do a story about his grandmother (Mason), who is about to attend her 500th Bears game. Fonseca plays Avery, the reporter assigned to the story, and “there’s a little bit of love and football,” as she put it to The Hollywood Reporter during filming. The movie filmed at Soldier Field, locations around the city and Halas Hall, the Bears team headquarters in suburban Lake Forest.
Hallmark, producer Skydance Sports and the NFL have worked together on three Holiday Touchdown movies. The previous two revolved around the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills.
Dustin Rikert directed A Bears Love Story. Andrew Gernhard and Molly M. Mayeux produced, and Jessica Matthews and David O’Donnell are executive producers.
