Deck the Halls and the Worcester Common: Locally-shot Christmas on Ice kicks off Lifetimes new holiday movies – Worcester Mag

Christmas is coming early to Lifetime, and Worcester will be unwrapped right away on TV as "It's A Wonderful Lifetime" features a season of 30 new holiday movies.

The season begins at 8 p.m. Oct. 23 with the romance "Christmas On Ice," which was shot at several locales in Worcester back in February including the Worcester Common Oval, Worcester City Hall, Worcester Ice Center and Birch Tree Bread Company.

"It's fantastic. I can't believe they're starting the Christmas season before Halloween, but we'll take it," said John Stimpson of H9 Films, which has its studios located at the Printers Building, 44 Portland St.

Stimpson wrote and directed "Christmas On Ice," which stars Abigail Klein as Courtney Bennett, a former Olympic skating hopeful who runs a municipal outdoor public skating oval that is threatened by Mayor Greenwood (Will Lyman) with imminent closing. Noah Tremblay (Ryan Cooper) is a former NHL player and single dad who runs a new indoor skating center. Courtney and Ryan might seem like mutual antagonists, but when they slide into love, the move is on to try to save the public rink and the Christmas Carnival Courtney hosts on the Common each holiday season.

Actually, there's quite a Worcester movie binge going on right now with the Liam Neeson action flick Honest Thief, a good deal of which was filmed in and around the city in the fall of 2018, opening last Friday at the Blackstone Valley 14 Cinema de Lux in Millbury.

"Christmas On Ice" will be repeated multiple times on Lifetime in the days ahead, Stimpson said. Just after 10 p.m. Oct. 23 on Lifetime you can watch Stimpson's 2019 holiday movie, also shot in the Worcester area, "Christmas a la Mode."

"We're on a roll," Stimpson said about making holiday movies with credits that also include "A Christmas Kiss," "The March Sisters at Christmas" and "The Spruces and the Pines." In November, Stimpson will be filming a Christmas movie, "The Cape House," on Cape Cod.

Stimpson, who grew up in Wellesley, lives in Princeton and is married to Carolyn Crowley Stimpson, vice president of Wachusett Mountain. An actor as well as a director and producer, Stimpson has spent time in Los Angeles, but likes the fact he has been able to make movies within a short commute from home.

"Worcester's a fantastic place to shoot. We've made multiple movies here," he said. "It's a terrific locale in that it can be almost anything downtown, suburban, farms (close by)." Part of "Christmas a la Mode," about a struggling young dairy farmer, Emily, who enters an ice cream flavor contest, was shot at Whittier Farms in Sutton.

"The city has welcomed us with open arms," Stimpson said. Worcester Mayor Joseph M. Petty even opened up his mayor's office for a scene for the seemingly mean Mayor Greenwood. The DCU Center sent over a Zamboni to clear the ice.

Stimpson's creative output hasn't been confined to to films set around the holidays. A former president of Harvards Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Stimpson made his movie directorial debut in 1999 with the impressive political drama "The Gentleman from Boston," released internationally as "Beacon Hill," starring Michael Landes, Wendy Benson, Grainger Hines and Drea De Matteo of "Sopranos" fame.

Inspired by a local ghost story, Stimpson wrote and directed The Legend of Lucy Keyes (2004) set in Princeton and starring Julie Delpy, Justin Theroux and Brooke Adams.

Other films include "Sexting in Suburbia," "A Deadly Obsession," "Last Hours in Suburbia," "Betrayed" and "Sins of the Preacher." The drama/thriller "Black Car," later renamed "Vehicle for Revenge," was shot extensively in Worcester in 2015. Stimpson's films have been shown on platforms such as cable/satellite TV, direct online screening, DVD and through international deals. Stimpson has collaborated with area production companies including Moody Independent and Artigo/Ajemian Films and Andrea Ajemian, based in Worcester before moving to Los Angeles (Ajemian returned to Worcester to be unit production manager for "Honest Thief").

"Ghost Light," which premiered last year, was a very amusing take on the curse of Shakespeare's "Scottish play" that was shot in Concord and Groton and headquartered at New England Studios in Devens. The Ghost Light troupe arrives by bus at the imaginary Riverside Resort and Theater set in the Berkshires, and, because of some heedless saying of the name of the play, everything proceeds to go wrong. Stimpson said he hoped that the film would get a larger theatrical release than it realized, but is glad "Ghost Light" got a two-year deal with Showtime. "The pandemic slowed things down in foreign sales. We'll see where it goes."

Plenty can go wrong with the making of any movie, but with the holiday films Stimpson operates from a business model he feels comfortable with.

"We operate independently. We finance these movies then we sell the movie after it's completed to the highest bidder. We know the market pretty well," Stimpson said. Besides Lifetime, it also includes the Hallmark Channel and Ion Television.

Stimpson has collaborated with other writers but knows that the script, even though the story is a romance, has to be pragmatic and aware of the production needs. A given production typically runs on a short shooting schedule and "a modest budget," Stimpson said. "Christmas On Ice" was made for under $1 million.

Regarding how he got the idea for the film, Stimpson said his office overlooks the Worcester Common Oval. "I walk across to grab lunch almost every day. I thought, 'Gosh, this is a perfect locale for a movie. Such a lovely spot.'" So I constructed a movie."

Courtney "loves working with the kids. She has to figure out a way to keep it going." From his office Stimpson can also see the Worcester Ice Center. He thought the words "love interest."

Ryan Cooper also starred in "Christmas a la Mode."

"He's become a good friend and supporter of what we're doing up here," Stimpson said. "And Abigail Klein she's terrific."

The rest of the cast are regional/local actors. Caroline Portu of New Hampshire plays Courtney's friend. "I think she's on the brink of being a star," Stimpson said.

"Christmas On Ice" had its skates on for the shooting schedule, which was 13 days two five-day weeks, and one three-day week.

"It's busy. It's a fast and aggressive schedule," Stimpson said.

Even so, it just avoided what would be the pandemic shutdown.

"We finished at the end of February, and boy it was in the nick of time. We pushed ahead post production with everyone working remotely."

Stimpson was hoping to film "The Cape House" this past April, but with the pending November schedule he said, "we'll be able to shoot a Christmas movie closer to Christmas."

With COVID-19 "the challenges are extraordinary. As an industry there are all kinds of new protocols to keep everyone safe and we're doing it to a 'T.' At Cape Cod we'll be in a bubble 12 days and test everyone multiple times."

A desire for escapism coupled with the familiar comforts of the holidays might help explain why Lifetime is getting such a big jump start on holiday movies. The network is also showing some moving with the times in terms of inclusion and diversity. This year's movies will include the network's first-ever LGBTQ+ centered romance, "The Christmas Setup" (Dec. 12), which stars real-life couple Blake Lewis and Ben Lee. "Sugar & Spice" (Dec. 13) is the network's first holiday movie about a Chinese-American family. The film stars Jacky Lai, Tony Giroux and Tzi Ma

Stimpson has been making plans during the COVID down time for his own future movies. "I've got multiple things lined up some of which I'm not at liberty to discuss," he said. "It's an exciting time. Things are starting to pop. It's exciting to think about doing more than one or two a year. It will allow us to have a much more vibrant company."

With that, there is the ongoing debate about the merits of the Massachusetts film tax credit that gives incentives to filmmakers to shoot in the Bay State. There have been moves to eliminate it.

"So much depends on the tax credit. We're talking with the Legislature to keep that in place," Stimpson said. "It's an important part of why Massachusetts is an attractive place (to make movies)."

In Worcester, "We've had a lot of big projects coming in. It's going to be fun seeing the Liam Neeson. It's been exciting to see the giants of the film industry here in Massachusetts."

Meanwhile, Stimpson plans to keep the cameras rolling in Worcester.

"Yes, there will be many more," he said of shooting films here. "I've always embraced staying here and developing the talent and the crew because I'm here. This is home."

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Deck the Halls and the Worcester Common: Locally-shot Christmas on Ice kicks off Lifetimes new holiday movies - Worcester Mag