Merrily All The Way: We Roll From Stage 32 Consultation Call To Active Development- The Executive's Story

Hello to the Stage 32 Community!

I’m Producer Kristen Lucas, founder of the production and management company, Goldilocks Productions. “We tell stories about badass women”. My background is in corporate retail marketing and, for a time, I was the Marketing Manager for HomeGoods. I went to grad school for Screenwriting at Emerson College in Boston, MA. After writing one feature script I realized screenwriting wasn’t for me.

Fast forward… After navigating the changes brought on by 2020, while managing actors and writers for Bohemia Group in Los Angeles, I crossed over into the influencer marketing space.

Then it hit me. As an indie producer, I am always seeking funding to make movies but here I was seeing the money that brands were throwing around. So why not develop an elevated Christmas movie, where brands could integrate in a way they have never done before? This was in December 2022 at the height of the holiday season.

So, over the next month, I worked on the project's concept deck, even without a script. It was more of a "concept" of how it would all work, or at least I hoped so.

In January 2023, we began taking meetings. Through my connections with the group Women In Influencer Marketing, I secured a meeting with a significant brand integration company and shared the deck. I concluded my pitch by saying out loud on Zoom, "I am either seriously crazy, or this is going to be incredible when we pull this off." Apparently, the meeting attendees saw the potential because they promptly referred me to some of the leading brand integration specialists who work with producers to negotiate such deals.

It was time to find a script. I contacted my connections at Stage 32, where I have been a consultant since 2020. We did the first Stage 32 pitch session at the end of January, but despite meeting some great writers, we did not find the script with the elements we were looking for.

I continued holding meetings on Zoom on both coasts and by March 2023, I had successfully raised some development money and formed a new company with my new partner, Collab Content Entertainment. I also courted and attached Director/Producer Colin Theys, whose producing & directing credits include: The Noel Diary, A Biltmore Christmas, Where Are You Christmas, The Holiday Fix Up, Soul Santa, and more.

However, we still needed a script. The Writers Guild of America strike in May 2023 added another hurdle to our search. This strike significantly limited the availability of scripts and writers, making our search even more challenging. Good times.

By July, I was getting desperate. I had combed through my email inbox, searching for old scripts I had read—still nothing. The only good news was that after the release of 'Barbie,' a movie that successfully integrated a brand into its storyline, there was substantial excitement around the potential of branded movies. This excitement led to more meetings with investors. I reached back out to Stage 32 again and scheduled another pitch session, hoping for the best.

Finally, in August, My partner Jim Langlois and I stumbled upon a written pitch from screenwriter Bradford Richardson for his unique Christmas Rom-Com, "MERRILY ALL THE WAY," which is about following your heart to your true romantic destiny. SOMETHING FROM TIFFANY'S meets PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES. It sounded perfect.

Once the WGA strike was resolved, our team was finally able to read the script. To our delight, we all unanimously agreed that 'MERRILY ALL THE WAY' was the perfect fit for our project. We negotiated to purchase the script from Bradford.

It was now December. I’d arranged to meet Bradford, in person for the first time, at Christmas Con 2023, in New Jersey. Yes, Christmas Con is a real thing and a very big deal in the broadcast & streaming Holiday Movie market. Christmas Con attracts thousands of devoted fans for celebrity meet-and-greets and audience-packed Cast Panels with star talent from the latest Holiday feature films. They even had snow falling from above the Santa Sleigh set where guests had their picture taken sitting with Santa in his sleigh.

We feel certain MERRILY ALL THE WAY will prove our new Development and Production Model is an effective methodology for Producing hit Holiday-themed movies. We are so appreciative of the amazing team at Stage 32 for being a huge part of finding the script.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Got an idea for a post? Or have you collaborated with Stage 32 members to create a project? We'd love to hear about it. Email Ashley at blog@stage32.com and let's get your post published!

Please help support your fellow Stage 32ers by sharing this on social. Check out the social media buttons at the top to share on Instagram @stage32 , Twitter @stage32 , Facebook @stage32 , and LinkedIn @stage-32 .