Whidbey-made Christmas rom-com heads to Langley, seeks movie snow

Making Christmas snow in Langley may be the hardest part of Starry-Eyed Christmas, a Whidbey-made rom-com trying to turn the waterfront town into a holiday set in the middle of summer.

South Whidbey resident Kim Hornsby is co-producing the film and wrote the screenplay, which she has been adapting around the island. Hornsby, who has published 22 novels through Amazon Books and built a growing list of film credits, is shaping the project around a familiar Christmas-rom-com formula while keeping the setting rooted in Langley’s streets and storefronts.

The story gives the movie an offbeat backbone. Hornsby’s script follows Bailey, a small-town sheriff, who falls for Hudson, a visiting astronaut in town to catch a rare glimpse of the Christmas Star. Bailey also secretly coaches the hairdresser Natasha through her interactions with him. Hornsby said she rewrote the story to fit Langley better, shifting it away from mountain settings and trimming down the outdoor scenes, a practical change that shows how the town itself is helping define the movie’s look.

The cast includes Melanie Stone, Joshua Price and Angela Cole. IMDb lists Cathy Lynn Yonek as director and places the film in pre-production. A separate production listing says Starry-Eyed Christmas is slated to shoot in Washington State during the summer, with Head in the Stars Films producing and a 2026 release planned.

Langley Chamber of Commerce got involved after Hornsby contacted a board member about finding office space to use for filming. The chamber invited Hornsby to a meeting on April 8, and chamber executive director Nicole Whittington-Johnson said the outreach mattered because it was a way of interacting with the community. For a place like Langley, even a search for office space can become part of a larger production footprint, with crews, equipment and local spending following the camera.

Langley already has a film history to build on. From October 2021 through July 2022, an indie production filmed on weekends in town, using recognizable locations including the Machine Shop and the Clyde Theater. That kind of reuse of local landmarks is part of what makes Whidbey attractive to filmmakers who want recognizable places without losing the feel of a real town.

Washington Filmworks, the state’s film incentive organization, supports feature films, episodic series and commercials shot in Washington, and state revenue rules identify it as the only approved nonprofit qualified for the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program. For a project like Starry-Eyed Christmas, that larger state structure helps explain how a South Whidbey story can grow into a production with island roots, Seattle crew ties and a shot at turning Langley into holiday movie country.