Writer Gary Goldstein Takes Over Hallmark! (Well, he has two movies in the same week.)

Screenwriter Gary Goldstein landed on my radar a couple of years ago when I was utterly charmed his Hallmark holiday movie Hitched for the Holidays. This week, Gary has two movies debuting for Hallmark, in very different genres.

Along Came a Nanny debuted on the newly rebranded Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel last Sunday (read Rueben’s review here), and My Boyfriend’s Dogs is Saturday’s new original movie on The Hallmark Channel. To celebrate two movies in one week, I chatted with Gary about these two very different stories.

Along Came a Nanny is a murder mystery based on a feature film treatment Gary wrote a while ago. He pitched it to Hallmark, they asked him to add more mystery to it – “I added more twists, more characters, and more red herrings to amp up the mystery” – and it became an original movie for the new Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel.

The story follows Cameron Mathison’s cop, Mike Logan, as he goes undercover as a nanny – or “manny” – in the suburbs to catch a murderer. Sarah Lancaster co-stars as Jessie, a nanny in the neighborhood who is both bemused and charmed by Mike’s attempts at caring for his charges while looking for a killer. Although it ranks on the lighter side of the “murder mystery” scale, Gary set the story in suburbia because the idea of looking behind the “picture perfect” facade added unease and a bit of creepiness.

“When something bad happens in a quiet neighborhood, people say, ‘But nothing ever happens here, this is a storybook neighborhood,'” Gary said. “It does make it scarier because you don’t expect it. In an urban environment it seems like more happens and you’re expecting more, so I think it can be creepier in Suburbia.”

The basis for My Boyfriend’s Dogs is a Young Adult novel by Dandi Daley Mackall. Gary adapted it for a more grown up audience, aging Bailey Daley by about 15 years and making her a teacher instead of a student. Overall, though, the characters stayed pretty close to the book, retaining the flavor of the original story.

“I tried to honor the best parts of the book, which I really and loved thought was incredibly charming, while making it as cinematic as possible and making it work for Hallmark audiences.”

Gary is a dog lover – he has two – and that drew him to the project. In the movie, Erika Christensen’s Bailey adopts three dogs from past relationships on her way to finding happiness. The dogs are each a reflection of their “dad’s” personalities, although they are able to give Bailey the love their previous owners could not.

“What I loved about the book was the whole theme that if you can find someone to love you the way that dogs love you, then you’ve got the right person,” Gary said. “Not that you have to have someone who is totally devoted to you, but dogs tend to see the best of you and see you the way that you want to be seen. They’re wonderful companions and supporters.”

Exploring the latter part of a young person’s journey for love, heading into the next stage of her life, also appealed to Gary, and he had nothing but praise for how Erika Christensen brought Bailey to life.

“She is so charming and disarming and such a good actress, I think she brought so much to the character. That was a great bit of casting.”

Gary’s trademark, in my opinion, is the dialogue he writes for his characters. The words he gives them seem to allow the actors to be so much more organic than some other television and film scripts. These two movies are no exception.

Another Hallmark movie is already in the works for Gary, this time a holiday movie for 2015 based on the book The Christmas Angel.

“It’s a beautiful multi-generational story,” he said. “I literally just started working on that.”

He is also pitching other movies and TV series, as well a possible miniseries based on a ’40s crime case.

My Boyfriend’s Dogs premieres Saturday, October 18 at 9/8c on The Hallmark Channel, and Along Came a Nanny is rerunning Sunday, October 19 at 5/4c.