Hallmark to shoot another movie in Tampa Bay

TAMPA — Hallmark will soon begin shooting its third movie in the Tampa Bay area.

Elayne Schmidt, who produced the first two and will produce this one, told the Tampa Bay Times that cameras start rolling in August in Pinellas County.

The movie, titled South Beach Love, is about an American chef and a Cuban chef who meet and fall in love against the backdrop of planning a “quinceañera,” Schmidt said.

A quinceañera is the celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday.

Specific locations have yet to be locked down, she said.

The first Hallmark movie made locally was True Love Blooms.

Primarily shot in Pinellas in February 2019 and premiering the following April, it is about an urban gardener fighting to save her community garden from a real estate developer. They, of course, fall in love.

Next came Love in the Sun.

Filmed on both sides of the bridge in April 2019 and premiering the following month, it is about a dating app creator who finds her views on love challenged when she returns home to Florida and reconnects with her high school sweetheart.

Another was to be shot in the area in 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic.

“We couldn’t be happier to have Hallmark back,” St. Petersburg-Clearwater film commissioner Tony Armer said. “We hope to host another three, or maybe even another 30.”

Armer said there are no negotiations for future Hallmark films, but “because they are so familiar with working with us here in Tampa Bay, whenever a movie comes up that could work in our area, we will probably get a call.”