“Dallas” star Linda Gray has re-teamed with TV movie exec producer Larry Thompson to pitch a spooky film set at Southfork Ranch — the real-life location that served as the setting for the hit 1980s primetime soap. Gray and Thompson worked on last December’s hit Lifetime TV “Ladies of the 80s: A Divas Christmas.”
This time out, Gray and Thompson are shopping a project that finds Gray (and potentially her “Dallas” co-star Patrick Duffy) as poltergeists who haunt Southfork Ranch. They’re playing all-new characters — not their iconic “Dallas” roles — and because Southfork operates independently as a real-life venue for filming and tourism, the location is legit. But beyond the similar casting and perhaps some tongue-in-cheek references, there’s no connection to “Dallas.”
Former Hallmark Channel “Home and Family” producer William Keck (who also recently released his tell-all memoir as a former tabloid reporter, “When You Step Upon a Star”) wrote the script. The film follows Gray and (potentially) Duffy as the ghosts, who are up in supernatural arms when a young pop star arrives at the estate to shoot a Christmas music video. This being a holiday-themed movie, the ghosts conspire to keep her from falling in love with the home’s handsome caretaker.
Should Gray and Duffy star together, it would rep another reunion for the “Dallas” stars, following the show’s original CBS run from 1978 and 1993 and then the revival on TNT, which ran from 2012 to 2014 — until the death of star Larry Hagman led to the show’s cancellation.
“Dallas” remains a fan favorite, however, and is the basis of an upcoming cast reunion meet-and-greet fan event at Southfork on October 25 to 27. Gray and Duffy are among the stars expected to attend. (Another “Dallas” reunion took place this past March in Burbank.)
Source Agencies
