Kimberly J. Brown, Daniel Kountz Bring Halloweentown Film to Hallmark
Fans are freaking out over this Halloweentown reunion.
Hallmark has announced that they are making a third installment to their Haul Out the Holly Christmas movie series, but this time it has a spookier makeover, called Haul Out the Halloween.
And the best part about the movie, it will feature Halloweentown stars Kimberly J. Brown and her real-life husband, Daniel Kountz.
"The new neighbors moving into Evergreen Lane really love Halloween. #ikyk," the actress wrote on her TikTok June 6. "Haul Out the Halloween coming to @Hallmark Channel this fall!"
This film will mark the first time Kimberly and Daniel, who married in 2024, have starred in a movie together since they starred opposite one another as Marnie Piper and her nemesis Kal, respectively, in the 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge.
The two first began dating back in 2016 when they collaborated for a Halloweentown parody video and made their romance Instagram official in 2018, sharing a pic of the two of them kissing.
Six years later, Kimberly and David shared the exciting news on Instagram that they tied the knot at the Spanish Hills Club in Camarillo, Calif. The couple captioned a picture from their wedding day, "This Will Be…An Everlasting Love…" Mr. & Mrs. Kountz. Est. 4.19.24."
@officialkjb The new neighbors moving into Evergreen Lane really love Halloween.😏🎃 #ikyk Haul Out the Halloween coming to @Hallmark Channel this fall!
♬ original sound - Kimberly J. Brown
And the pair paid tribute to Halloweentown at their wedding.
"We had a hallway in the Spanish Hills Country Club where we got married that had a space for large photos going down the hallway into the reception room," Kimberly told E! News in an exclusive interview the following fall. "We blew up one of the pictures that we have of Marnie and Kal together from the stills that we took then and we put it next to one of our engagement photos. It showed the progression."
"We had to put a little nod in there because it's the reason we met and the reason that we still get to enjoy meeting fans to this day and are still working together," she explained. "It's the ultimate blessing to get to have fun and more spend more time and work with your spouse. It's just best."
Read on to find out 15 magical secrets about Halloweentown...
1. How did the idea for Halloweentown come to be? It's simple: Creator Sheri Singer's stepdaughter once asked, "Where do all the creatures from Halloween go the rest of the year when it's not October 31?'"
2. NBC initially bought the concept as a movie that would air at 9 p.m.…until the network ended up not doing anything with it as it felt too young for their adult audience.
3. Years later, Singer and Steve White brought it to Disney Channel, who initially passed on it. But after the success of their first original movie, 1997's Under Wraps, they reconsidered.
4. Because it was now a Disney production, the movie was changed a bit to skew even younger. "We were able to be very whimsical. We needed to create these really interesting characters," Singer said. "They were fun and slightly scary, but not too scary."
5. While she wasn't what the producers initially had in mind when it came to the young witch's physical appearance (they were going for a blonde), Singer said that 13-year-old Kimberly J. Brown "blew everyone else away" and landed the role of Marnie.
6. The first actor cast in the project? Legendary star Debbie Reynolds as Aggie, the witchy grandmother everyone wished they had.
"Debbie had decided she wanted to open herself up to doing some television. When we saw the list, we took one look at her name and said, oh my god, would she really do it?" Singer recalled. "This is absolutely unbelievably blessed and terrific idea for casting. And she did. We never went to anyone else."
7. , Production chose St. Helens, a small town outside of Portland, Or., to build Halloweentown. Because of Since the Mount St. Helens volcano eruption in 1980, it was mostly a "ghost town," according to Singer, so the locals were welcoming to the crew.
"They were so grateful to have us there and so easy to work with. We had a good crew up there and it fit the demands of the movie. We made all these storefronts. It was really fun and became very iconic."
8. Brown will occasionally break out one of her outfits from the film to wear on Halloween, a tradition Debbie, who died in 2016, passed onto her.
"Debbie gave me the idea, but she had Aggie's cape and the purple dress and she used to answer the door for Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween in the outfit," Brown shared. "I started doing it, too, one or two years in a row, I put on Marnie's outfit, and gave out candy."
9. In the fourth and final installment of the franchise in 2006, Marnie was recast, with Sara Paxton taking over the witchy role.
"I was definitely disappointed," Brown said. Singer explained, "That was not something we wanted to do. We could not come to terms that we felt were fair. We just weren't able to. We couldn't make the deal work."
10. St. Helens is so proud to be the home of Halloweentown, the town has dedicated the entire month of October to the film since 1998, hosting a festival for locals and tourists alike.
According to a communications officer from St. Helens, about 40,000-50,000 people visited in 2017.
11. The original cast of Piper-Cromwells reunited for the first time since Halloweentown High at the 2017 festival.
"It was nice to go back and honor Debbie. It's such an honor that people want to come and hang out and see where it was filmed," Brown said. "Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this is what we would be doing."
12. While there are no official plans to continue the franchise, Singer said she would "like" to do a fifth movie, if the interest is there.
"I'd have to get Disney Channel to get on board, but I would like to," she said. "I have ideas of how I would do it. There was some talk about a year and a half ago but then it didn't happen."
13. If it were to come to fruition, Singer envisioned "a musical," adding, "There's also ways to do a prequel. It's not something I haven't brought up before."
14. Ready for DCOM nostalgia overload? Brown, who sells Halloweentown-themed merch on Etsy, is engaged to Daniel Kountz, her foe in Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge. The pair reconnected in May 2016 to start working on a few Improv sketches together.
"It's been pretty fun getting to watch the fans' reactions to it over the years," Brown told E! News of the response to their relationship. "It cracks us up."
15. And do you remember Marnie's beau in Halloweentown High, Brown's last outing as the witch? That was American Horror Story and Judy standout Finn Wittrock.
"He got along with everybody right away and I know it must be interesting to join a cast that has so much history, and kind of come in and hang with us," Brown told Seventeen of the star joining the cast. "He was awesome."
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