Notable films are set in cozy bakeries, snowy Christmas villages and romantic castles. Now there’s a new location where love grows — and it’s thousands of feet in the air!
IN come fly with me New Hallmark Movies & Mysteries s Top Gun-esque vibe, Emma “Blitz” Fitzgerald (Heather Hemmens) is an Air Force pilot who lands a spot on the famed Thunderbirds flight crew and finds a way to balance flying, family and her budding romance with her widowed father Paul (Niall Matter).
Real members of the Thunderbirds, the special flying unit of the United States Air Force, were called in to advise on the shoot, making sure everything was authentic — plus they flew their jets in breathtaking formations, giving the film a real-life feel!
Hallmark’s new movie, ‘Come Fly with Me’.
2023. Hallmark Media/Kim Nunneley
“It was our first day of shooting at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, and the Thunderbird team did their best to make these scenes the highlight of the series,” Michael Robison, the film’s director, told PEOPLE in a statement, referring to the scene in to which Blitz takes Paul on what he calls “the flight of his life”.
“It’s a key bonding moment where she introduces him to her love of flying,” he adds.
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On the set of the Hallmark movie “Come Fly With Me”.
2023. Hallmark Media/Kim Nunneley
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In one of the behind-the-scenes clips shared exclusively with PEOPLE, Blitz is in the cockpit ready to lift Paul into the air.
“Okay, are you ready there?” she asks him as she backs off the gas. Sitting behind her, Paul replies, “Go ahead.”
“Feel that kick?” she asks as they race down the runway before take off. “Now we’re going to pull out some G’s.”
The jet makes some spectacular big loops through the air and Paul can’t help but smile. When they landed, he tells Blitz he felt like his “face was going to slide off… I’m so lucky I didn’t throw up.”
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Members of the Thunderbirds on the set of Hallmark’s “Come Fly With Me.”
2023. Hallmark Media/Kim Nunneley
Another exclusive clip obtained by PEOPLE shows Blitz frustrated with herself for flying in late for one of the jet formation exercises.
One of the Thunderbird crew tells her, “That’s why we train. So we can improve. Besides, nobody gets it right the first time.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, Robison says that aeronautics held a special place in his heart and that it all started with a visit to his fighter pilot uncle’s office.
“My uncle, Bill Farnsworth, was a fighter pilot for the Navy who later became a test pilot for McDonnell Aircraft and NASA. His home office was filled with models of all the jets he had ever flown, so when we visited he would love to tell us stories about each one,” Robison recalls. “I’ve always been intrigued by fighter jets, so when Hallmark offered me a Thunderbirds project — it was a dream come true.”
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The biggest challenge of production come fly with me Robison, he says, integrated so much footage of the F-16 flight into the love story.
“It was fun creating heart-pounding sequences that captured the spectacular precision of Thunderbird’s superbly choreographed maneuvers,” he says, praising the “incredible” crew and visual effects team that pulled it all together. “Our goal was to combine the thrill of a new romance with the exhilaration of flight.”
“Come fly with me it was an opportunity to tell a beautiful love story with themes of honesty, trust and loyalty,” adds Robison. “Creating the close-knit friendship of the Thunderbird team has been a rewarding challenge. Competition, self-doubt, mutual support, teasing and laughter. All this had to be developed and choreographed so that when the team performs in the air, the audience is right there with them and enjoys every moment.”
Matter and Hemmens are no strangers to Hallmark movies. Matter, 42, previously starred in Aurora Teagarden Mysteries series, Never kiss a man in a Christmas sweaterand Christmas together with you, among others. Meanwhile, Hemmens, 35, acted Christmas in My Heart, Love, Take Two, Caribbean Summer and A pinch of Portugal.
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Come fly with me airs Friday, September 15, at 9:00 PM ET on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
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Source: HIS Education