In a move that has already drawn comparisons to the network's most ambitious seasonal programming, Hallmark announced Tuesday that it has greenlit a holiday film about two rival pharmacies transferring a single prescription back and forth until Christmas Eve.
The movie, titled The Last Transfer Before Christmas, is set in the fictional town of Pinewick, where Maple Street Pharmacy and Town Square Rx face each other across a snow-covered green. A patient asks to move one remaining refill from one store to the other. What follows, according to the network, is "a tender, winter-long exchange of nearly completed transfers."
"This is a love story about two pharmacists who keep sending the same prescription back because neither of them is quite ready to let it go," said Claire Donnelly, a Hallmark spokesperson for seasonal original films. "Every time one of them finally has it, the other one calls. We think viewers will recognize themselves, or at least their hold music."
Production notes describe fourteen attempted transfers of a 90-day maintenance medication with one refill remaining. In the first act, Maple Street faxes the transfer, and Town Square reports that the page came through blank. In the second, Town Square sends it electronically, and Maple Street's queue lists it as already transferred. A mid-film montage is devoted to both pharmacists being told that the other pharmacist will be with them in just a moment.
Community pharmacy consultants asked that several details remain in the script. The receiving store must document the last fill date, the remaining quantity, and the original written date. The sending store must confirm the prescription is not a controlled substance ineligible for transfer. In two scenes, the patient arrives to pick it up while the stores are still on the phone with each other.
"I had to step out during the scene where they almost complete it, and then the claim rejects as refill-too-soon," said Owen Pritchett, PharmD, a staff pharmacist who attended an early table read. "That is the most accurate thing I have ever seen on television. I also need to know whether it is resolved before the town tree lighting. I have not slept."
Donnelly said the ending will remain under wraps, but confirmed that the prescription is still in transit as of the final commercial break. A studio official, who asked not to be named, said the last scene takes place at 4:55 p.m. on Christmas Eve, with both stores about to close and the patient standing at one of the counters.
At press time, Hallmark said a sequel was already in development, in which the same prescription is transferred back on December 26.
