The Confession - Sequel to Hallmark Movie, The Shunning

MOVIE REVIEW

Beverly Lewis' The Confession

Network: Hallmark Channel

Original Air Date: May 11, 2013

*Based on the Amish Book Series by Beverly Lewis.

*This is a Sequel to the Hallmark Channel Original Amish Movie, The Shunning, which starred Danielle Panabaker as Katie Lapp. Sherry Stringfield reprises her role as Laura Mayfield Bennett, Katie's mother.

CAST:

Sherry Stringfield ... Laura Mayfield Bennett
Katie LeClerc ... Katie Lapp
Bill Oberst Jr. ... Samuel Lapp
Sandra Van Natta ... Rebecca Lapp
Cameron Deana Stewart ... Daniel Fisher
Adrian Paul ... Dylan Bennett
Julia Whelan ... Alyson
Michael Rupnow ... Justin Wirth
Rebecca Koon ... Rosie
Brett Gentile ... Bookie
Ray Collins ... Fulton
Steve Boles ... Sealey
Shelton Grant ... Selig
David Temple ... Yates
Katie Sawhill ... Alexis
Abigail Pagan ... Camilla
Willie Stratford ... Theodore
Jan Notzon ... Dr. Stein
Steffen Schollaert ... Young Man in Diner
Al Curl ... Mr. Kowalski
Tanya J. McLellan ... Driving Instructor

PLOT:

This is a Sequel to the Hallmark Channel Movie, The Shunning.

Leaving behind her cloistered Amish life, Katie Lapp seeks the mother she has never known.

via Hallmark:

Three-time Emmy® and two-time Golden Globe® nominee Sherry Stringfield (“ER”) and Katie Leclerc (“Switched at Birth”) star in the World Premiere of “Beverly Lewis’ The Confession,” a Hallmark Channel Original Movie on Saturday, May 11 (9p.m. ET/PT, 8C). The dramatic sequel to Hallmark Channel’s highly acclaimed original movie, “Beverly Lewis’ The Shunning,” which first premiered in 2011, is based on the second novel of The Heritage of Lancaster County Books from New York Times best-selling author Beverly Lewis. The series is based on some of the heartbreaking experiences of Lewis’ maternal grandmother, who was born into the Old Order Mennonite Church, which became the genesis of Lewis’ fascination with her Plain heritage. Katie Lapp (Leclerc) is an innocent young Amish woman who has ventured out of her small Lancaster community for the first time after a painful incident led to her “shunning” from the very township that raised her. As she takes on the unfamiliar outside world, she is desperate to track down her birth mother, a wealthy and generous woman named Laura Mayfield-Bennett (Stringfield) who is sadly dying of cancer. With only a few months to live, Laura and her husband Dylan (Adrian Paul, “Highlander”) prepare Laura’s estate and will. When Dylan, a greedy gambling addict, finds out he will inherit close to nothing from his wife, he hires an out-of-work actress, Alyson (Julia Whelan, “Once and Again”), to feign as Laura’s long-lost Amish daughter—hoping Laura will take the bait and leave her entire estate to her only child.

All Production Photos above from - The Confession facebook page

Movie Review:

Coming...


See or Skip:

Coming...

*See Comments below for The Confession - and Please, leave your thoughts on this Movie.

*For details on the first movie, See The Shunning Page. (be sure to read the Comments on this Page, as well!)

*Beverly Lewis' The Confession is Available on DVD.


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Family Movie Truth be Told + Hallmark's The Shunning

So Many Movies ~ So Little Time!

Over the weekend, I watched Truth be Told, The Waltons Easter Story, Upstairs Downstairs, and the TV Land Awards.



Truth be Told

 I know, I know... the Hallmark Channel premiered a new movie and I didn't see it. It amazes me, too! I just typically never miss a Hallmark Channel movie premiere- however it was on at the same time as Truth be Told and since Truth be Told was only going to be on once, I chose it on Saturday night. I was glad I did, too because the storyline was - well, you can see my full movie review, here.



The Shunning


I just didn't have a chance to fit in The Shunning this weekend; however, I did record it - and do plan to watch it sometime, whenever I can get the chance. (if possible, among Easter preparations this week!)

However, until I see The Shunning, I have truly enjoyed reading all of your thoughts on it and if you would like to read others comments or include yours - please click here to do so!

By the way, I also mentioned that I watched the TV Land Awards Sunday night. During the 80's, my sister & I loved - The Facts of Life and The Cosby Show - so it was really nice to see the cast of both of these shows. Everyone still looked so great! Blair (Lisa Whelchel) was always our favorite - still is! It's so good to know she is a Christian and she uses her celebrity platform to speak to other women, and write books about her faith, motherhood, and homeschooling. (Click here for Books by Lisa Whelchel )

There was a late showing of Upstairs Downstairs after the TV land Awards went off late Sunday night. I don't know quite, yet, how to review this one as we are in part 2 of 3. This show was all over the place and most of the relationships seem odd or immorally driven. The storyline is all drama - drawn out, depressingly sad, as you sense a prolonging toward more doom. It's definitely not one for family viewing - kids would be quite bored anyway, as I must admit, I was, most of the time.

So, all in all - as Family Movies go... I'm glad over this weekend I watched Truth be Told, starring David James Elliott and Candace Cameron Bure. I have been a fan of Candace since her Full House days as DJ... and it's great to know, she, too, is a Christian. (She has a new book, titled: Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness.)

You can see my Truth be Told - Movie Review here and if you saw it, please leave your comments, I would love to know what you thought.

Or, if you saw The Shunning, check out others responses, here, and please leave your comments, I would love to know what you thought of this movie, as well.


Have a blessed Easter Week!

Hallmark Channel Premieres "The Shunning" and Fox Family Movie Night Premieres "Truth be Told"

April 16, 2011-

Watch Hallmark Channel's New Original Movie 

"The Shunning"

See the The Shunning page for Pictures, Plot, and more!

Click here for the Movie Trailor!

April 16, 2011 - Saturday:

The Shunning ... Hallmark Channel ... 9 PM *NEW
The Shunning ... Hallmark Channel ... 11 PM *NEW

(Also, you can see a Movie Marathon of the Janette Oke 'Love Comes Softly' Book turned Movie Series before the Premiere of Beverly Lewis's The Shunning.)

Love Comes Softly ... Hallmark Channel ... 7 AM
Love's Enduring Promise ... Hallmark Channel ... 9 AM
Love's Long Journey ... Hallmark Channel ... 11 AM
Love's Unending Legacy ... Hallmark Channel ... 1 PM
Love's Unfolding Dream ... Hallmark Channel ... 3 PM
Love Takes Wing ... Hallmark Channel ... 5 PM
Love Finds a Home ... Hallmark Channel ... 7 PM

April 17, 2011 - Sunday:
Blessings on Palm Sunday

The Shunning ... Hallmark Channel ... 1 PM *NEW
Love Comes Softly ... Hallmark Channel ... 5 PM
The Shunning ... Hallmark Channel ... 8 PM *NEW

---------------------------------------------------

Watch Fox Family Movie Night Movie

"Truth be Told"

See the Truth be Told page for Pictures, Plot, and more!
Click here for the Movie Trailor!

April 16, 2011 - Saturday:Truth be Told ... FOX ... 8 PM *NEW

God's blessings to you all on this Holy Weekend of Palm Sunday!

Hallmark Channel's The Shunning - Movie Trailer

This is a very moving and powerful trailer preview
for the movie - The Shunning.

(be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this page to pause or stop the music below in the Playlist before pushing play on the video!)



THE SHUNNINGPremieres April 16, 2011
Hallmark Channel


Click here for Pictures, Plot, Cast, and more - for The Shunning.

-

Michael Landon Jr, Producer of Hallmark Channel's The Shunning

 

MICHAEL LANDON JR.: BLAZING HIS OWN TRAIL AT LAST

from Crown Features Syndicate™

Michael Landon Jr. knows what people are thinking every time they hear his name, and it has nothing to do with him.  It’s about his father, the legendary actor who charmed television audiences with long-running hits in the 1960s (“Bonanza”), ‘70s (“Little House on the Prairie”) and ‘80s (“Highway to Heaven”) before dying tragically of pancreatic cancer just shy of 20 years ago.  The legacy he left behind is vast.
 
But one of Landon’s greatest creations turns out to have been the son named after him.  Landon Jr. is now a successful writer-director who is very much in demand, carving out a niche with the same kind of family-friendly fare that his dad built a career on.  His latest project is the Hallmark Channel Original Movie World Premiere entitled “Beverly Lewis’ The Shunning” that debuts Saturday, April 16 (9 p.m. ET/PT, 8C).

Based on the first novel of The Heritage of Lancaster County books series from New York Times bestselling author Beverly Lewis, “The Shunning” stars three-time Emmy® and two-time Golden Globe nominee Sherry Stringfield (“ER”) and Danielle Panabaker (“The Crazies”) in a story of the Amish Community and its strict order of rules and adherence.  Panabaker stars as an Amish woman engaged to be married who discovers she is adopted – and that her birth mother (Stringfield) is dying of cancer and wants only to be reunited with the child she gave up 24 years before.
 
“It’s a tale of two worlds colliding,” Landon Jr., now 46 and born during his father’s years starring on “Bonanza,” explains.  “We tell the story of a young Amish woman struggling with her identity as she prepares for her marriage with the town’s bishop who is made to question things even more when she gets a glimpse of the modern world she’s been missing.  She begins to separate herself from her community.  And that causes a shunning.”

In Amish culture, a “shunning” is a practice – still in existence – whereby everyone in a community shuns a person for their behavior, Landon Jr. stresses.  “No one is allowed to speak to this person, do business with this person, have meals with them, visit with them or in any way associate or they risk being shunned themselves,” he says.  “It’s a form of isolation meant to break the person so they’ll come back into the fold.”

While Landon Jr. doesn’t necessarily agree with the practice, he reasons that we see forms of it every day in our own lives.  “Shunnings happen in families all the time,” he believes. “We’ll stop inviting people to dinner, stop taking their phone calls, that kind of thing.  It just isn’t as official as it is with the Amish.”

“Beverly Lewis’ The Shunning” was filmed in Winston-Salem, North Carolina over 16 very busy days, Landon Jr. recalled.  Having a strong team to keep the production moving like a well-oiled machine was essential.

“We shot 120 scenes during that time, which is really moving,” he says.  “We were fortunate to have been blessed with some very cooperative weather during the fall, which made the beauty in the film just spectacular.  The colors, the countryside, it’s just magnificent.  Two days after we wrapped, it started snowing the temperatures plummeted.  So we clearly lucked out.  And I know that Beverly Lewis was hugely pleased by what we came up with, even though she never made it to the set.  She saw a rough cut and was very enthusiastic, which really feels good.”

It also feels hugely gratifying to Landon Jr. to have become something of a go-to guy as a writer, producer and director of films in the Hallmark Channel universe that his father would have surely endorsed.  He co-wrote, produced and directed four films in the much-beloved original made-for-TV movie series “Love Comes Softly” based on the series of books by Janette Oke, also co-writing and producing a couple of others.

All of this has come for Landon Jr. since 2003, when a career he describes as challenging and inconsistent finally took off behind the camera as a writer-producer-director.  This will no doubt come as a surprise to many who presumed that his name would have brought the guy easy entrée into Hollywood considering his father’s longtime show business domination.  But perceptions can prove greatly misleading.

“There are all sorts of elements at work when you carry this name,” he maintains.  “There are issues of identity and finding your own place in the world, not to mention attempting to fill one’s own shoes when you’ve had a parent as successful as my father was.  You have to work that much harder to create your own stamp, your own style, and not just try to capitalize on the handle and emulate.  My dad obviously heavily influenced the things I respond to story-wise.  But that doesn’t mean I’ve simply tried to follow in his footsteps.”

Indeed not. As Landon Jr. describes things, it was difficult for him to find consistent work, starting off working in what’s known as the “below the line” crew positions on productions.  He spent close to eight years in various camera jobs, first as a film loader, then as an assistant cameraman and operator.  Her also logged time as an apprentice editor and production assistant.  In other words, this isn’t a man who was able to use nepotism to push his way into showbiz.

“I would have been empowered a little bit if I’d pushed the acting thing more,” Landon Jr. figures, “but being named Michael Landon Jr. doesn’t help you on the other side of that camera.  If anything, it’s tougher, because you need to prove yourself that much more.”

Landon Jr. really wanted to direct but found he “couldn’t catch a break.”  So he created his own, co-writing scripts that he was then able to become director on.  His first job came in a film about his dad entitled “Michael Landon: The Father I Knew” in 1999, and he’s been able to build a body of work over the past decade that now spans 10 projects.

Yet while the name Michael Landon remains somewhat magical with generations of TV audiences two decades after his death, in Hollywood that reputation was always somewhat more ambiguous, Landon Jr. acknowledges.

“In terms of his work, my father wasn’t popular among his peers in the business,” he says.  “The problem was that he wasn’t considered an artist per se.  In general, people in entertainment who make softer programming are never going to generate the same respect. They’re never going to get the accolades and the awards.  Your peers don’t pat you on the back but look down on you, if not to your face.

“Where you get the positives and the praise is from the fans – in my dad’s case, from the viewership.  When you allow somebody into your home on a weekly basis for as many years as my father was on, you begin to feel a sense of knowing that person, that they’re a part of your family.  That’s how it was with my father in a phenomenal way.”

Even his father found the outpouring of love during the weeks and months leading up to his death on July 1, 1991 to have been “overwhelming,” Landon Jr. agrees.  “He touched so many lives,” he found, “and at the end of the day that counts more than anything.”

In his way, Landon Jr. is also working to move people and make a positive impact through his work.  He’s proud to have partnered with the international hunger relief organization World Vision to direct the documentary short “Journey to Jamaa” that tells the real-life story of two children from Uganda orphaned by AIDS who travel with their mother’s body across many kilometers to give their mother a proper burial in her birthplace.

“It’s a powerful story that I’m hoping will break hearts and open pocketbooks,” Landon Jr. Notes.  “When you work to do something that makes a difference, the rewards you receive are immense.”

“Beverly Lewis’ The Shunning” premieres Saturday, April 16 (9 p.m. ET/PT, 8C).


*The above article is from Hallmark Channel Press - Crown Features Syndicate™


See THE SHUNNING PAGE for Pictures, Plot Details, Casting, and More!