GAF: New Autumn Harvest movie announced with Danica McKeller

 

Source: https://people.com/tv/danica-mckellar-new-rom-com-swing-into-romance-great-american-family/?utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&utm_content=new&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=6418cd16c22aaa000154a49a

Danica McKellar is ready to shake and shimmy into her next role!

PEOPLE can exclusively reveal that The Wonder Years alum, who competed on season 18 of Dancing with the Stars in 2014, will be putting those skills to the test once more in the coming months as she films Swinging into Romance, her latest rom-com movie for Great American Family.

According to the network, the film follows former dancer Christine Sims (McKellar) when she temporarily returns to her hometown for the Fall Festival and learns that her family's General Store is struggling. In order to help save the business, Christine will need to dust off her dancing shoes and face her ex-fiancé — and she may even find love in the process.

"I've been wanting to dance in a movie since I was on Dancing with the Stars in 2014, but I've always loved dancing," McKellar, 48, tells PEOPLE. "My mom was a professional dancer before I was born, so the love of dance is in my genes."

COURTESY OF DANICA MCKELLAR

McKellar is one of the executive producers on the film, which hits very close to home for her since her husband, Scott Sveslosky, wrote the story!

"Back in 2017, I told my husband that I wanted to play a math teacher in a movie, and he wrote the story for a movie that ended up being called Campfire Kiss, and I did that for Hallmark," McKellar explains. "More recently, I said, 'I really want to dance in a movie,' and he wrote this story."

She adds, "He's not a writer! He's a lawyer. He just is good at putting together ideas when I really want to do something. And it's just fun to have that knowledge that he's a part of this."

Asked if those ideas stem from a conversation, or if he surprises her with a story, the actress is quick to recognize Sveslosky's romantic gesture.

"More or less, he will surprise me with it," she says. "He'll say, 'Hey, so remember when you were talking about how you wanted to do a movie about dance?' I'm like, 'Yeah.' And he says, 'Well I wrote this 10 pages of a story. What do you think?' So it's really all him. Again, it's not his day job, so the fact he will take to time to do that is really cool. He's so romantic. I hit the jackpot."

ADAM TAYLOR/DISNEY GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT CONTENT VIA GETTY

Swinging into Dance hasn't yet cast a costar or choreographer for McKellar, but that hasn't kept her from hitting the floor.

"I have been training anyway," she admits. "Not specific dance moves, but in general, with a coach. Because, let's face it, it's nine years after Dancing with the Stars — so I'm nine years older — and it's not something I do every day. But I love it so much and I want to do a good job. So, like anything else, I'm doing my best to prepare."

With her next Christmas movie shooting soon after this film, McKellar says 2023 is "a busy year of dancing, which is really exciting. I'm not sure I could ever quite obtain what I had during Dancing with the Stars, but I'll maybe get into the second-best shape of my life. It's my job, after all!"

Last month, Great American Family announced that McKellar would star in their 2023 holiday movie Royal Christmas Ball, which she'll also executive produce based on a story she wrote with Marcy Holland.

Swinging into Romance will debut in the fall as part of the network's Autumn Harvest event.