Hallmark Channel series features novelist Janette Oke’s fiction Print
Written by DeWayne Hamby   
Tuesday, 11 February 2014 04:54 PM America/New_York

Family-friendly feature-length western from Michael Landon Jr. based on popular cable TV show

WhenCallsTheHeartWhen Calls the Heart: Lost and Found (818728010740, $19.98) comes from the new Hallmark Channel TV series When Calls the Heart, based on Janette Oke’s best-selling books and produced and directed by Michael Landon Jr. A feature-length film based on the first two episodes of the show—which debuted to more than 3 million viewers and placed second for the night on all of cable television—released to stores on DVD for home-viewing last month.

The series tells the story of Elizabeth Thatcher (Erin Krakow), a young teacher accustomed to high society before receiving her first assignment in a mining town. Lori Laughlin also stars as Abigail Stanton, a newly widowed housewife who must take up coal mining in order to provide for her family. Elizabeth charms most everyone in Coal Valley except Constable Jack Thornton (Daniel Lissing) . He believes Thatcher’s wealthy father has doomed the lawman’s career by insisting he be assigned in town to protect the shipping magnate’s daughter. Living in a 19th-century coal town, Elizabeth will have to learn the ways of the frontier if she wishes to thrive on her own.

Landon has been in the film business for 25 years, earning two of the highest-rated films in Hallmark Channel history and having produced several notable releases well received in the Christian market.

Brian Bird, co-founder with Landon of Believe Pictures, serves as writer and producer of When Calls the Heart. Bird’s most recent projects include Gametime, a two-hour television pilot for NBC, the film adaptation of Beverly Lewis’ The Shunning and the T.D. Jakes-produced movie Not Easily Broken. He also was co-executive producer and writer on Touched by an Angel.

To order When Calls the Heart: Lost and Found, call Word Distribution at 800-876-WORD (9673).