New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Eloise Mumford (Christmas with Holly, Fifty Shades of Grey) and Michael Stahl‐David (The
Black Donnellys, Cloverfield) play two young people who've known their whole lives they'll probably end up getting married to each other, in the Hallmark Hall of Fame original movie "Just in Time for Christmas," premiering Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015, 8-10pm ET/PT on Hallmark Channel.
Now,
Lindsay Rogers and Jason Stewart are in their late 20s; she's a college prof, he owns a coffee shop. They live in Harborview, a picturesque town in Washington State.
Their comfortable world is turned upside‐down, though, when
Lindsay gets a dream job offer, a professorship at prestigious Yale University in Connecticut. That once‐in‐a‐lifetime career opportunity comes at the same time Jason has finally summoned the nerve to propose marriage. A dilemma if ever there was one!
Fortunately, a magical messenger (William Shatner) gives
Lindsay a priceless Christmastime gift: she's fast‐forwarded three years into the future, so that from that perspective she can look back and make the right decision at a critical time in her life, a decision that will be best for her, for her devoted boyfriend, and for her beloved Grandpa Bob (Christopher Lloyd).
Interviewed on the "Just in Time for Christmas" set, Eloise Mumford says, "What a gift time travel is for Lindsay! She gets to fast‐forward three years so she can see what happens if and when she doesn't choose Jason, and instead pursues this dream job. But she also gets to see the big empty hole in her heart, where Jason was."
Michael Stahl‐David, also interviewed on set, adds, "You know that line 'benefit of hindsight?' Well, wouldn't it be neat to really have benefit of hindsight.
"It's also exciting, of course, the notion of jumping forward a year or three, so you can look back. The question becomes, 'If I knew then what I know now, what decision would I make?'"
On a personal level, both Mumford and Stahl‐David loved the opportunity to work on a Christmas movie.
"Christmas is huge in my family," says Mumford. "It's a time of being together, of celebrating family and demonstrating the love we all have for each other."
Michael Stahl‐David's family has a particular, and beautiful, Christmas tradition.
"We gather in front of the fireplace," he says, "for five consecutive nights before Christmas, and we take turns reading from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. On Christmas morning, we read the final chapter. We've been doing that for 20, 25 years."
He adds, "Christmas, I think, makes us think about our lives, about the choices we've made, about the choices we haven't made, about the kind of person and people we want to be, about what's really important in life."
Three‐time Emmy Award winner
Christopher Lloyd is best known for his Emmet "Doc" Brown in the iconic Back to the
Future trilogy, also his Jim Ignatowski in the series Taxi, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed
Roger Rabbit.
This is
William Shatner's second Hallmark Hall of Fame appearance. His first was in 1958, in The Christmas Tree, alongside an illustrious cast that included Ralph Bellamy, Carol Channing, Maurice Evans and
Jessica Tandy. The role that made him famous world‐wide was
Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the USS Enterprise, on Star Trek, which premiered in 1966. It became a live‐action film in 1978, again with Shatner at the helm of the Enterprise.
The script for "Just in Time for Christmas" was written by Helen Frost and Don MacLeod. It is directed by Sean McNamara (Soul Surfer). It is produced by Andrew Gottlieb (Christmas with Holly) and Cameron Johann (Away & Back). The executive producers are Carol Baum (Father of the Bride), Jane Goldenring (On the Second Day of Christmas), Timothy O. Johnson (Christy) and Brent Shields (The Magic of Ordinary Days).
