A Biltmore Christmas

Lucy Hardgrove is a cynical screenwriter tasked with rewriting the script for a remake of the beloved holiday classic 'His Merry Wife!'. Her boss, Michael Balaban, demands a traditional happy ending, but Lucy believes a modern audience would prefer a more 'realistic' bittersweet conclusion. To help her find inspiration, Michael sends her to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, where the original was filmed. While touring the estate, Lucy is shown a vintage hourglass from the Biltmore collection that was used as a prop in the 1947 film. When she flips the hourglass, she is magically transported back to the set of the original production in 1947. Mistaken for an extra, she meets Jack Huston, a charming and talented actor playing the role of Charlie the angel. Lucy begins to oscillate between the present and the past, realizing that the hourglass grants her exactly one hour in 1947 per turn. During her visits, she discovers that the lead actor, Claude Lancaster, is attempting to have his co-star Ava Hayward fired, labeling her 'box office poison.' Lucy uses her knowledge of the future to encourage director William West to stick to his creative vision and helps Ava regain her confidence. As Lucy and Jack fall in love, she learns a devastating piece of history from the present-day tour guide: Jack Huston is recorded as having died or disappeared on Christmas Eve in 1948. Desperate to save him, Lucy tries to warn Jack of his fate during her final trip to the past. The situation becomes dire when the 1947 studio head, Harold Balaban, realizes Lucy is a fraud and attempts to have her arrested. Jack helps her escape to the hourglass just in time. Back in the present, Lucy finds that her interventions in the past have slightly altered the film's legacy for the better, and she finally writes the happy ending Michael wanted. The film concludes when Jack Huston suddenly appears at Biltmore in the present day. He reveals that he used the hourglass to travel to the future to be with her, faking his own disappearance in 1948 to ensure the timeline remained intact, choosing a life with Lucy over his Hollywood career.