The Chicago Journal

Hallmark released two separate movies that are too alike

Nicholas Alexander Nicholas Alexander on January 24, 2023

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Hallmark is renowned for being equally predictable as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although being less extravagant.

Online humor says that the central figure in Hallmark films is typically a career-driven someone who visits an old town for the holidays.

They meet an old flame there and are compelled to choose between their careers and their newly discovered love for the simple life.

In the end, they leave their professions.

Recently, two Hallmark films were singled out because their storylines were nearly identical.

The Sister Swap movies

Last year, Hallmark released two films: Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday and Sister Swap: Christmas in the City.

Real-life sisters Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams played the same roles in the Christmas-themed tales of both films.

The Sister Swap movies, which contained some of the same dialogue and scenes but different perspectives and angles, were edited by the same person, Kristi Shimek.

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Summaries

The plot descriptions for the Hallmark Christmas movies may be confusing to some due to how similar they are.

Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday’s plot summary is as follows:

“Jennifer and Meg Swift are two sisters wanting to find a new sense of purpose.”

“During the Christmas holidays, they decide to swap homes and end up discovering what they both truly need in life.”

If you open a different tab and search for Sister Swap: Christmas in the City, the same synopsis will pop up.

Discovery

The 2021 Hallmark movies were discovered by Dan Harmon, the man behind Rick and Morty and Community.

He shared his discovery on Instagram and wrote:

“Okay. I don’t know how to start or finish discussing this so we should start discussing now and take our time,” wrote Harmon.

“There are two Hallmark movies called “Sister Swap.” One is called Sister Swap: Christmas in the City, the other is Sister Swap: Hometown Holiday.”

“So we thought oh cool it’s a franchise and there’s a sequel, which Sister Swap do we watch first? Well HERE’S THE THING. Both Sister Swaps are released in 2021.”

“They are not sequels.”

“Both Sister Swaps are the same story, about sisters – played by real sisters, who have to swap… cities.”

“It should be noted that the sisters AND the cities AND the MOVIES are, so far, indistinguishable. It’s not like one is a hillbilly and the other is a millionaire, that doesn’t matter, we don’t go to Hallmark for conflict.”

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“The crazy thing is that we also don’t go to Hallmark for experimentation on this level. Nothing in the description of the movie says “here’s the thing everybody.””

“The descriptions of each movie are honestly mostly excited that two real life sisters are playing sisters.”

“We found an article called “how to watch the Sister Swap movies” and got so excited and then it turned out to be instructions on how to find Hallmark on your streaming service.”

“I can’t keep talking about this, we just started watching, I can’t spend all night posting about it.”

“We keep going back and forth between the movies.”

“The same conversations are happening in each one but there’s no “Rashomon” or “Peep Show” angle, the dialogue in each version is identical but the scenes are cut differently because I assume they just had different editors.”

“In one of the movies, one of the sisters has a full flashback about her relationship with the other sister.”

“In the other sister’s movie, you don’t get a different version of the same flashback. You just don’t get a fucking flashback in that one.”

“In both movies, they spend 1 minute trying on hats but in ONE of the movies, they also try on glasses.”

“We’re freaking out and I can’t keep typing about it I will come back later i fucking love Christmas though.”

An explanation

More than 33,700 people liked Dan Harmon’s tweet, and in the comments, fans analyzed it and shared their own theories.

One user claimed that she and her partner had completely “fallen into the rabbit hole” after being inspired by his post to see the movies.

The movie’s lead actor, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, saw Harmon’s post and added, “HERE for this,” with laughing emojis.

Williams-Paisley explained:

“We wanted to do something outside the box for the genre but also stay in the genre, and my sister came up with this brilliant idea of two films that take place in the same time frame and sometimes overlap.”

“[And] it took us years to figure out the puzzle, and then, Hallmark finally let us DO IT.”

The explanation provides a unique viewpoint on the direction, and the Sister Swap movies’ unusual style will probably help them gain a huge cult following.

Reference:

Hallmark is being mocked for releasing two nearly identical Christmas movies

Community to receive its long-awaited movie after Peacock picks up the project

Claire Peterson Claire Peterson on October 6, 2022

Community is a much-loved series that aired between 2009 and 2015 and has always carried the tagline “Six Seasons and a Movie” since its second season.

Seven years after the end of the series, Community finally got the green light for a feature film.

In mid-2022, news surfaced of a possible upcoming movie, but no one knew when it would come.

On September 30, it was finally revealed that it had been picked up.

The news

The internet exploded when several stars started posting the prophetic phrase “And a movie” online.

It was revealed that Peacock commissioned a film about the underdog study group Greendale, founded by Dan Harmon.

The announcement revealed that the original cast members would be returning.

Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Ken Jeong, and Jim Rash have been confirmed to return as Greendale saviors.

Original cast members Yvette Nicole Brown and Donald Glover have yet to be confirmed to return.

Comedy legend Chevy Chase may not return as Pierce Hawthorne after the fourth season’s fallout, but anything is possible.

Behind the scenes

Aside from the film, Peacock managed to secure non-competing rights to air the sixth season of Community.

Susan Rovener, president of NBCUniversal’s entertainment content and streaming, shared her enthusiasm for the project, saying:

“‘Six seasons and a movie’ started out as a cheeky line from Community’s early seasons and quickly ignited a passionate fan movement for this iconic, hilarious, and cool (cool, cool) NBC comedy.”

“We’re incredibly grateful that 15 years later, we are able to deliver fans this promised movie and can’t wait to get to work with Dan Harmon, Andrew Guest, Joel McHale, Sony, and our partners at UTV to continue this epic comedy for Peacock audiences.”

Six seasons and a movie

The Community Movie has gotten more attention since Dan Harmon said it was possible to make it work, and Joel McHale’s tweet from Sept. 30 confirmed that it may be on the way.

McHale tagged his co-stars Peacock, Sony, Community and Gillian Anderson (accidentally because Gillian Jacobs didn’t have an account) and posted a photo with the hopeful words, “And a movie.”

The full line was first said by Abed Nadir (Pudi) in the second season episode, Paradigms of Human Memory.

The episode took a take of the “clip shows” trope in older shows, which usually recycle old clips to save money.

Instead, in Paradigms of Human Memory, they showed new clips of past events.

In one of the clips, Abed disguises himself as Cape (from the titular TV show) and accidentally spills Jeff Winger’s (McHale’s) lunch.

Jeff yells, “The show’s gonna last three weeks!” To which Abed replies: “Six seasons and a movie!”

The phrase became a rallying cry for community fans around the world, especially when the show was temporarily canceled after its fifth season.

Yahoo managed to pick it up and fulfill half of the prophecy.

Progress of the film’s development over the years

Community creator Dan Harmon said a movie would be made as early as 2016.

Over the years, he’s regularly updated his fans and hinted that a movie is in the works.

In August of this year, Harmon announced that he had pitched a Community film, and Peacock seemed interested.

Although he founded Community, Dan Harmon is only on board to write the film and serve as its executive producer.

He is joined in the role of executive producer by Joel McHale, Andrew Guest, Russ Krassnoff, and Gary Foster.

The film hasn’t found a director yet.

Reference:

Community is finally getting its long-promised movie

Community fans receive the news they waited years for: a Community movie

Edward Anderson Edward Anderson on August 29, 2022

Community creator Dan Harmon has for years expressed his intention to deliver on his promise to give fans a film that closes the story.

The Wrap news agency revealed that Harmon has already outlined a story for the film and that negotiations are underway.

The update

Community news first surfaced when he promoted the sixth season of Rick and Morty, which premieres September 4 on Adult Swim.

During the promotion, he provided an update on the Community movie.

“Conversations and agreements are happening,” said Harmon.

“There’s a story – who knows if we’ll end up sticking to it, but it was something we had to compile in order to take it out and court various venues.”

“And now, negotiations happen.”

Dan Harmon also said the film was not a question of “if” but “when”.

“When you put the percentage chances together, it’s like you have to account for maybe the world blowing up or another virus happening.”

“But as far as the industry is concerned, this is a matter of when and not if, for sure.”

Dan Harmon’s caution

Although fans are understandably excited, Harmon revealed he was hesitant to get fans excited, saying:

“That’s probably enough that’ll make people mad when [there’s nothing] a year from now.”

“It still doesn’t mean there’s going to be a movie tomorrow. It means there is definitely going to be one.”

The Community creator shared how extremely careful he was.

“The fan that Instagrams every day about ‘Community,’ how can you tell them, ‘Yes, it’s definitely going to happen, but it may be between one and eight years from now’ — which is how the industry works, especially when you factor in pandemics and whatnot.”

“It just feels like psychological torture, from a fan’s perspective, to keep looking into the backseat of a station wagon and saying, ‘Who wants McDonald’s?’ And to just keep driving down the freeway.”

“I don’t want to be guilty of causing that sensation. It just takes so long sometimes.”

Six seasons and a movie

While there’s no guarantee the movie will be released anytime soon, the updates are a step in the right direction.

“Six seasons and a movie” has been the fan community’s rallying cry ever since Dani Pudi’s Abed mentioned it in Season 2.

The quote has been a mantra for Abed and fans alike ever since, especially since the NBC show canceled it and the show moved to Yahoo! Screen, where it aired its final season in 2015.

The final episode of the series ended with an intertitle that read “And a movie.”

The headline prompted people to post the popular #SixSeasonsAndAMovie hashtag.

In 2020, Dan Harmon and the cast of Community (Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong, Yvette Nicole Brown and Donald Glover) hosted a virtual reunion where they had a table read and a Q&A session.

During the session, everyone expressed a desire to make a film.

References:

Dan Harmon: Community movie is now “matter of when and not if”

‘Community’ movie is outlined and being pitched, Dan Harmon confirms