HALLMARK CHANNEL WRAPS PRODUCTION ON "THE WILDERNESS FAMILY"; ORIGINAL MOVIE SET TO AIR IN 2009

Peter Strauss and Jonathan Silverman Star

Hallmark Channel has just wrapped production on "The Wilderness Family," an original movie about a fast-paced, modern-day family that gets caught up in their busy routine. When the Vickerys inherit a cabin in the mountains and are faced with a daunting challenge, they quickly come together as a family and realize that the most important thing in life is each other. The movie is set to air on the family-friendly network in late 2009.

"The Wilderness Family" stars Peter Strauss ("The Jericho Mile"), Jonathan Silverman ("Weekend at Bernie's"), DeDee Pfeiffer ("Journey to the Center of the Earth"), Linsey Godfrey ("The House Bunny") and Nolan Gerard Funk ("Renegadepress.com").

"The Wilderness Family" is the story of the Vickerys, who on the surface appear to be the perfect all-American family: Jack (Silverman) is a star at his ad agency and is looking forward to making partner; Emily (Pfeiffer) is an up-and-coming realtor; Derek (Funk) is a senior in high school and star soccer player; and, Charlotte (Godfrey) is a do-gooder, vegetarian cheerleader. Underneath it all, however, the family is separated by modern-day gadgets and hectic schedules.

When Jack's Uncle George dies and leaves the family his country ranch in the mountains, Jack takes a look at his family and realizes they could all use some time away together. When the Vickerys arrive, some of them are quick to throw in the towel on the aged cabin with its outdated touches, including an outhouse. But, when the family meets their new neighbor, Wild Bill Cohen (Strauss), they are forced to work together to help him round-up a herd of grazing horses and, in the process, realize that as a family they can accomplish anything.

"The Wilderness Family" is a Hallmark Channel presentation of an LG Films Production in association with Larry Levinson Productions. Larry Levinson is the executive producer; Randy Pope, Amanda Phillips and Michael Moran are the co-executive producers. The movie is produced by Lincoln Lageson and Mary Church, and directed by Bradford May from a script written by Alex Greenfield.

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 86 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,450 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Prime Time and Total Day household ratings and is the nation's leading network in providing quality family programming. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel which plays the greatest family movies of all time, Hallmark Movie Channel, and launched Hallmark Movie Channel HD in April, 2008.