By Megan Alley
Sun Reporter
A new movie will begin filming in New Richmond at the start of 2021.
“An Unintentional Christmas” is set to begin filming at various locations in and around the village on Jan. 3, 2021. The film shoot is slated to end on Jan. 17, 2021.
The film is directed by Cincinnati-area native Lana Read, who also, along with Nancy Pushkar, wrote the film.
They started working on the script in June.
Read describes the film, set in modern day, as “an unintentional romance, centered around Christmas.”
She added, “I think there’s a lot of great little lessons in our film; like how to cope with loss, how to forgive someone, and the fact that anything can happen at any time, and just go with it, and adapt, and do the best you can, when any situation presents itself.”
Read said that all but one of the film’s scenes will be filmed in New Richmond.
While Read and Pushkar didn’t write the film with any particular location in mind, when it came time to scout locations, they knew they were looking for a quaint small town, and New Richmond fit the bill.
“When we wrote the script, we just thought ‘a charming little town,’ a place that when you watch it, you think, ‘I want to live there,’” Read explained. “We starting thinking, and we were brainstorming on the team call, and we started thinking about all of these little towns … A friend of mine, who is actually in the cast for this film, played Santa Claus in New Richmond last year.”
That friend suggested that the production team check out New Richmond as a possible location.
“I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t thought about that,” Read said. “I hadn’t been to New Richmond in so long, and when we went there to scout about a week later, I just fell in love with it. I thought that it was perfect, and I thought that [New Richmond] was the town in our script.”
Read said that the Ohio River waterfront, among other locations – Front Street Cafe, street scenes, the gazebo and more, will be featured.
“We’ll have some really beautiful shots of the town and the river in the film when it’s finished,” she said, adding, “I think that this town is actually itself going to be another character in the story, just because of the charm that New Richmond carries.”
In addition to New Richmond locations being featured in the film, local families are also invited to be extras in the film.
“Every one of these Christmas films has like the Christmas festival, or the big gathering on Christmas Eve, of the week of, so we do have a big Christmas scene, where we’re going to be asking for families – we’re going to try to do this in the safest way possible [amid the pandemic], of course – that want to be extras that we can group together, because they live together. We can put them together, and strategically place them, so we look like we’re filling up this big festival with a lot of people, but everyone will be safely distanced.”
She added, “So, we will need a lot of extras for that one big scene, and then a few more throughout, as well. We’ll have some featured extra roles where people will be bumped up with a line of dialogue.”
Those interested in learning more about becoming an extra on the film are directed to send an email with their information and a photo to aucfilm@gmail.com.
While filming“An Unintentional Christmas,” which Read noted is not being produced by The Hallmark Channel, Read said she’s really enjoyed getting to know the village and the local community.
“I tell you what, if I could move there, I would,” she said.
The cast of “An Unintentional Christmas” is set to include Michael Paré, Vernon Wells, Sarah Cleveland and John Wells.
Below are the names of the collective producing the film:
– Mark H Stewart
Stewbean Productions
– Lana Read
Garnet Films
– Nancy Pushkar
Crazy Cat Lady Productions
– Jessica Dunham
You Are Beautiful Artistry
– Together: An Unintentional Christmas Film LLC
Read said that she’d love to see the film released in July 2021 – sparking a ‘Christmas in July’ vibe – in theaters, but given the uncertainty of the pandemic, she doesn’t know if that will be possible.
“We will have a premiere locally,” she added.