Despite the warm March weather, the halls of the Connecticut State Capitol were decked with holly and festive red bows Friday for a Hallmark Christmas movie, which will film scenes in the historic building on Friday and Saturday.
The film is called “Ghost of Christmas Always” and is being produced by Rocky Hill-based production company, Synthetic Cinema International. The movie is an updated riff on “A Christmas Carol,” and the production has been filming around Hartford and West Hartford all month.
While details about the movie including the release date and cast, are being kept under wraps, West Hartford Public Relations Specialist Renée McCue provided the following synopsis:
“Katherine Marley is spending her afterlife working for the Department of Restoring Christmas Spirit as a Ghost of Christmas Present. She loves her job, visiting earth every Christmas to help one unsuspecting soul rediscover their Christmas spirit. But this year has something unusual in store for her. Their assignment is a man named Peter, and not only is it difficult to be sure why they’re ‘scrooging’ him (his Christmas spirit is on point), but there’s also the issue that Katherine and Peter just might be fated for each other. If fate was a real thing. Which it’s not … right? Ghosts of Christmas Always takes us behind the curtain, allowing us to experience the magic of A Christmas Carol from the ghosts perspective, while charming us with a romance for the ages.”
Movie staff spent much of Thursday wrapping the banisters of the Capitol’s upper floors with holly boughs and applying yuletide decorations to the building’s already ornate furnishings. By the afternoon a placard outside the Hall of the House of Representatives had redubbed the chamber “The Great Hall, Christmas Spirit Lounge.”
Eric Connery, facilities administrator of the Office of Legislative Management, said the movie production would pay whatever expenses resulted from their use of the building and extra hours by Capitol police but those expenses had yet to be calculated on Thursday.
Other parts of the movie have been filmed in West Hartford.
Synthetic Cinema International, is the same production company that was involved in “Call Jane,” which was filmed last summer in West Hartford and Hartford. That movie was a period piece set in 1968 and starred Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver.
“One of the reasons why we went back to West Hartford is because it was so great for ‘Call Jane,’ and we knew the style of houses,” Len Murach who served as location manager for both movies told We-Ha.com
