Production began Monday on Hallmark Entertainment's Hans Christian
Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale. The four-hour miniseries will bow on
Hallmark Channel in January, the network announced.
The project -- which is being worked on at Bablesberg Studios in Potsdam,
Germany -- is the second original miniseries Hallmark Entertainment has produced
to premiere on the U.S. cable network.
Odyssey Network, which will assume the Hallmark Channel moniker in August,
had previously aired the Hallmark Entertainment production of Voyage of the
Unicorn March 2 and 3. The miniseries averaged a 0.9 household rating, one
of the strongest Nielsen Media Research performances for the network.
Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairy Tale will not only track the
author's life, from a poor childhood to celebrity in the royal courts of Europe,
but showcase recreations of such classic tales as The Ugly Duckling,
The Little Mermaid and Little Match Girl. Kieran Bew plays the
author.
Robert Halmi Jr. and David Picker are serving as executive
producers.
