Paul Campbell Works Christmas Magic on Screen and Behind the Scenes in Hallmark's "Three Wise Men and a Baby"

quotThis actually came to us from the networkquot he explained in an exclusive interview with MediaVillage quotOriginally the concept was doing a film along the lines of Three Men and a Baby with Andrew Tyler and myself Then they got us on the phone and said 39We39d love to do a movie with these guys Would you guys be interested in writing it What can you come up with for a story39 They kind of planted the seed and then Kimberley and I grew the treequotSo from the outset it was designed for the three of usquot he continued quotBut schedules are always difficult to work around It wasn39t a certainty that it39d be the three of us but fortunately it worked out as we certainly did write it to our strengths and in our voices Once we designed the story we sort of figured out who the characters were and it became really easy to assign the actors I39m a middle child so the Stephen character just made sense to be me Tyler39s collective energy swagger and attitude just lent itself to Taylor the younger brother and Andrew Walker is kind of a superhero It just made sense to put him as the oldest brother and the one carrying all the weight It all happened pretty naturallyquotWhen it came to delivering dialogue while shooting as the cowriter Campbell wanted it to be natural as possible He was never overly protective of the words he and Sustad had written quotThere was a lot of adlibbingquot he recalled of the shoot quotBoth Tyler and Andrew39s strengths are making any dialogue sound natural My aim with Kim was to write naturalsounding dialogue in the way people speak but that39s not always the case We know Tyler and Andrew so we knew how they spoke and had their voices in mind But I handed the script over and as soon as we got on set I was no longer a writer Anybody that came up with something funnier than what was on the page wonquotAnd we messed around a lotquot he added laughing quotI don39t know how much of it made it into the movie but it39s impossible to be precious as a writer You just clip people39s creative wings if you39re too precious about the words as they39re not always a home run Having someone rephrase something so it feels more organic often works better Both Tyler and Andrew had full freedom and liberty to do that as did Margaret Colin who plays our mom It was her first Hallmark project and she did something completely unexpected and different She delivered in a way we hadn39t imagined when writing it and it was somehow perfectquotRegarding the mechanics of working behind the scenes Campbell is thankful to have Sustad as a writing partner as the magic they create together on screen is as organic offscreen quotKimberley has an extraordinary gift for story and for characterquot he reflected quotAnd she is like an encyclopedia of 3990s romcoms She understands story and what makes it compelling I have a technical eye and am good with taking those ideas and turning them into dialogue She39s like a broad stroke artist who gives me a lump of clay and says 39I think it has to maybe look like this39 I go 39Oh I can make a pony out of that39 and then we work together to kind of polish it It all just worksquotWhile the film is a comedy the premise touches on the serious side of single parenting and how overwhelming it can be at times As writers Campbell and Sustad knew they had to tread gently quotWe had to justify the mom dropping a baby off for a week at the fire hallquot he shared quotThat39s a big big big deal People might jump to a lot of conclusions with a lot of judgment about that mother But there are a lot of things that come with that like mental health and stability The only way to make it work was to understand her plight her journey and her desperation and tell the story of what it39s like to try and be a single parent and juggle a career and a baby all while staying physically healthy and mentally healthy It39s really difficult but we had to have people say 39Man I get it I understand how in a complete moment of desperation someone might leave a baby with strangers for five days39quotSince joining the Hallmark Media family Campbell is proud that as a writer he can explore subject matter that may once been deemed quotinappropriatequot Not too long ago quota lot of the jokes we39ve written into Three Wise Men never would have made it to airquot he said quotThey just weren39t right But now the network can39t seem to get enough of them It39s so fun to write these scripts and to be able to play in a bigger sandbox in terms of the types of tools we can use I39m hearing stories about projects that are in development and being pitched that never in a million years would you imagine Hallmark doing and they are embracing them entirely When I joined Hallmark I never expected where it would go nor did I think that I would love it as much as I doquotI love the stories we are telling and I love working for this companyquot he added in closing quotIt is a family and every time we get together it feels like a high school reunion When I did Window Wonderland in 2013 never did I think I would be writing movies let alone starring in my 11th movie for this company It feels like I won the lotteryquotThree Wise Men and a Baby will be telecast Saturday November 19 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel as part of its Countdown to Christmas programming eventClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Paul Campbell Works Christmas Magic on Screen and Behind the Scenes in Hallmark's "Three Wise Men and a Baby"

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Paul Campbell Works Christmas Magic on Screen and Behind the Scenes in Hallmark's "Three Wise Men and a Baby"

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