During the heyday of the Garage Sale Mysteries series on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries network, I came in contact with screenwriter Kraig Wenman, definitely one of the most prolific of Hallmark’s mystery writer’s, at least, in my opinion. Thankfully, even after the unexpected discontinuation of this popular mystery series, Hallmark was able to find even more amazing mystery series (and more) for Kraig to write, and one of those is about to premiere this weekend! I was honored to not only have met this man in person a couple of months ago, but I now bring you our most recent interview in anticipation of the premiere of Holiday Date.
RH: Since we last spoke, Hallmark mysteries have been keeping you busy!! I am most excited about Chronicle Mysteries and Crossword Mysteries. How did you get invited aboard for those, and how were these different than writing for other mysteries?
KW: Always good chatting with you, Ruth. Wow, what a year. From starting off with the end of the Garage Sale Mysteries series, to a Chronicle Mysteries premiere, to Crossword Mysteries, and then to the Mysteries of Martha’s Vineyard, I’ve killed so many people and solved so many crimes, that my search browser history must be startling to my service provider. Pretty sure I’m on a watchlist by this point. And if I’m not, someone isn’t doing their job. 🙂
Benjamin Ayres, Alison Sweeney Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Farah Nosh
With Chronicles, Ali Sweeney and writer/producer Melissa Salmons had gotten an order for a lot of episodes and brought me in to break story and bounce ideas for different movies. So my biggest contribution came in the form of the commercial break twists, cliffhangers, and set pieces, as they already had established the characters. I wrote a 25-page outline for The Vines that Bind, did the first two drafts, and then Melissa came in and hit it home after that. I’d originally met Ali when I was brought in to re-write Murder, She Baked: A Deadly Recipe back in 2016, so it was great to work with her again.
Brennan Elliott, Will Shortz, Lacey Chabert Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Shane Mahood
With Crossword Mysteries, they had already premiered the first movie, shooting the second, written the third, and had a paragraph of an idea for the fourth one when I came on board. So I expanded their paragraph into twenty pages, then wrote two drafts of the script, and we plan to shoot it next year.
The third one I did this year was The Mysteries of Martha’s Vineyard starring Jesse Metcalfe, that will be a series of movies based on the books by Phillip R Craig. It differs from the other HMM because a male lead is the focus AND he’s an early-retired homicide detective working alongside a quirky local nurse. We took the central characters from the book and came in with our own versions of the mysteries in a writer’s room. It was nice to get out of my cave that I work in and actually interact with real living people.
When writing mysteries, what is the easiest part? What is the most challenging?
When I write a mystery, I always write the murder first before anything, and then I think of what clues would be left around the scene, on the body, and who would be the one witnessing the killer’s escape. From there, it’s just reverse engineering and peppering in the clues and red herrings. Before I start writing the outline, I figure out each commercial break cliffhanger (8 twists in total), and then from there, it’s just filling in character, clues, and banter (*the banter being my favorite part of writing in general). Ninety-five percent of my clues come from real cases, so I would say the hardest part is convincing the executive producers that “Hey, this forensic clue actually happened.” Truth really is stranger than fiction.
So you’re the one responsible for Brittney Bristow’s first Hallmark leading role film! Yay! What was your involvement with that Christmas movie? How long did it take from being greenlit to the final product? How different was it writing this movie as opposed to the mysteries you’ve been writing?
Matt Cohen, Brittany Bristow, Ava Grace Cooper, Teryl Rothery, Bruce Boxleitner, Anna Van Hooft, Peter Benson Credit: ©2019 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Allister Foster
Holiday Date (or Holidate as it was originally called) was a one-sentence idea I came up with and pitched to the uber-talented studio exec Elizabeth Yost. It was then greenlit four months later; then we began the development process in March 2019 of expanding it from the one sentence, to three pages, and then to twenty. By the time they were ready to go to script, I was already elbow-deep in Crossword and the Mysteries of Martha’s Vineyard, that my schedule didn’t allow me to write a third script simultaneously (I only have so many arms). So I’m excited to see what they did with the idea and the script, as it combines both Christmas AND Hanukkah stories. Holiday Date premieres Sunday, December 14th.
Have you visited any Hallmark sets this year specifically? Feel free to elaborate if you like.
Earlier in the year, I was on the Garage Sale Mystery set for one of my films, but other than that I’ve been working in my cave, only emerging once and a while for food, parenting, and the sporadic cocktail.
Any other upcoming/current works you can mention?
I recently sold an action script called Hyperloop to Alcon Entertainment (Blade Runner 2049/Prisoners/Book of Eli). I am also currently out to actors with my new script Bandit, which is a true-crime heist movie that follows the infamous Gilbert Galvan Jr, who after breaking out of jail, meets the love of his life, while robbing fifty-nine banks over three years and netting over 2.3 Million dollars. It’s a fun movie in the vein of Catch Me If You Can.
I know that you often include personal things in the movies you write. Please share a couple of your most memorable and/or special things you have included in the movies you have written.
I put the name Ruth Hill in lots of scripts, so watch for that on the screen! In the Jesse Metcalfe project, I named a recurring reporter Jackie Shawl after the Hallmark Bubbly Sesh hosts Jacks and Shawl. Besides Shakespeare and Detectives named after famous musicians, I always throw friends and family names in there, as well as inside jokes and Easter egg references to other shows the lead actors have been in.
In Chronicles, I named the town Macklin after my friend Darren Macklin, who passed away back in 2009, so that’s the most meaningful for sure.
Why do you believe Hallmark continues to be so successful?
Now more than ever, people need hope and happiness in these turbulent times. Hallmark gives them that safe place, where they can go with their family to live out adventures, find love, and have that sort of return to Edenic bliss. We know our leads are going to solve the mystery, find love with the one that got away, and always leave a better person for the journey. There is a certain security in knowing that everything is going to be all right and that love conquers all. I mean, I think that’s what everyone looks for in life. I know I do.
What actors would you like to see do a Hallmark mystery that you write who have not done one as of yet?
I would love to see Candace Bergen, Lisa Bonet, Lucy Liu, and Alyssa Milano amongst others lead a murder mystery series, for they’ve been setting the stage for strong women from the beginning.
What are your top five shows to binge-watch currently?
I swear I’m not a disturbed murderer (although that’s what a disturbed murderer would say), but Mindhunters, Forensic Files, Dead to Me, The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror, and waiting on Ozark Season 3.
If you could do a reboot of any show or movie (with you as the writer), what would be your top requests and why?
I would love to see Fincher’s Seven done as a series and find out what happened to those characters after the movie ended. Or even a prequel, if that killer had done previous elaborate crimes.
I would also love to see Harold and Maude, The Lost Boys, Basic Instinct, and Ferris Bueller brought to a new generation and updated to the current political climate, tech, and trends. I think right now, those films would be more poignant than ever.
Thanks for the great interview, Ruth, and look for your name in my next movies!
There is nothing like meeting the people I have interviewed in person, and Kraig was definitely no exception. He regaled me with a wealth of stories from behind-the-scenes (some which will NEVER be shared in an interview–privileged information), and that meeting only gave me more admiration and respect for what Kraig accomplishes on a daily basis. While writers are rarely given their due, I am appreciative to the Hallmark network for recognizing the writing genius that Kraig possesses in spades, and the fact that he chooses to continue this partnership with them also demonstrates that loyalty is a two-way street. Kraig may appear unassuming and quiet upon meeting him, but never underestimate his writing prowess, his intuitive comprehension of human nature, and his clever way of writing mysteries with unique, relatable elements…all of these elements and more mingle together to make him one of the most interesting people I have had the opportunity to meet. I could have chatted with him all day about a potpourri of topics, and I so appreciate his authenticity in all areas as evidenced in our meeting, his online presence, and, of course, our current interview.
I hope that everyone makes plans to tune in to the Hallmark Channel on Saturday, December 14th for the premiere of Holiday Date (premiering concurrently on the W Network). And as we go into 2020, it looks like there will be a cornucopia of works from this ingenious scriptwriter, so make plans now to watch all of his mysteries on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. Additionally, while you are making your plans to savor all these extraordinary things Kraig has written (or will write), be sure to visit his links below and consider following him on social media. He does a fairly decent job of alerting his followers to his upcoming works and often gives us a glimpse into a bit of his personal life. I cannot thank him enough for doing his best to insert my name and others into his movies (I mean, if I can’t star in a Hallmark movie, at least my name is there!), and I hope that the Hallmarkies continue to support all his movies on the network (on beyond) for many decades to come!
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