JANETTE OKE'S AWARD WINNING BOOK SERIES INSPIRES A HOLIDAY MINISERIES STARRING ACADEMY AWARD(R) NOMINEE SEAN ASTIN AND ACADEMY AWARD(R) AND THREE-TIME EMMY(R) AWARD NOMINEE JOBETH WILLIAMS IN 'LOVE'S CHRISTMAS JOURNEY,' A HALLMARK CHANNEL ORIGINAL MINISERIES PREMIERING NOVEMBER 2011

Natalie Hall and Greg Vaughan Also Star in the First Holiday Movie Event in Hallmark Channel's Most Beloved Movie Series Ever

Academy Award(R) nominee Sean Astin ("Kangaroo Court," "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy) and Academy Award(R) and Three-time Emmy(R) Award nominee JoBeth Williams ("On Hope," "Frasier") have begun production in Southern California on "Love's Christmas Journey," a Hallmark Channel Original Movie Event slated to air in November 2011. Inspired by Janette Oke's award winning book series, the four-hour Christmas movie event also stars Natalie Hall ("All My Children") and Greg Vaughan ("General Hospital") in an inspiring tale of love, trust and miracles.

While still mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, recently widowed Ellie King (Hall) visits her brother Aaron Davis, (Vaughan) a sheriff in the small town of Haddonton, and his two children during the Christmas holiday. Ellie does her best to enjoy the holidays, even making new friends with Beatrice (Williams), a local shop keeper and Deputy Strode (Dylan Bruce, "The Bay," "As The World Turns"). Settling in nicely with her brother's family, Ellie agrees to watch her niece and nephew when Aaron travels out of town to purchase adjacent land for farming. But when a corrupt attorney in town leaves a young man to blame for Mayor Wayne's (Astin) barn catching fire and burning, Ellie ignores distrusting townspeople and steps in to help to prove his innocence. To her dismay, the season's festivities are threatened when Aaron goes missing. When all seems lost, Ellie not only gets the perfect holiday miracle - her brother delivered home safely on Christmas morning - but also the chance at a new life when she finds herself falling in love again.

"Love's Christmas Journey" is being produced by RHI Productions. David S. Cass is directing from a script written by George Tierney. Additional programming information forthcoming.

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 available in high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) to a national audience of almost 88 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through approximately 5,492 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel is the nation's leading network in quality family programming with an ambitious slate of original TV movies, lifestyle and general entertainment content, and is the home of "The Martha Stewart Show", which anchors the channel's new daytime HOME block. Hallmark Channel's sibling network is Hallmark Movie Channel, also available in HD and SD, which focuses on the family-friendly movies with a mix of classic theatrical films, presentations from the acclaimed Hallmark Hall of Fame library, original Hallmark Channel movies and special events.