The Safe House - Expositions

STUDIO CITY, Calif., July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- "The Last Cowboy," a two-hour made-for-television original movie starring Jennie Garth ("Beverly Hills 90210," "The $treet") and Lance Henriksen ("Millennium," "Scream 3") will premiere exclusively on Hallmark Channel in December 2002. Bradley Cooper ("Changing Lanes," "Alias") and M.C. Gainey ("Con Air," "Days of Our Lives") also star.

Jennie Garth is "Jake (Jacqueline) Cooper," a young woman reluctantly reunited with her estranged dad for her maternal grandfather's funeral. Jake has held an eight-year grudge against her dad because she still cannot come to terms with a decision he made concerning her now-deceased mother. But now, Jake has a new man in her life -- a small son "Billy" (Dylan Wagner), whom her father has never met.

Lance Henriksen is "Will Cooper," Jake's father, who is stuck in another era and certain he can keep rolling over the ranch's enormous debt because of his deep roots in the Liberty Hill, Texas community his family founded.

At the funeral, father and daughter meet an unexpected fate: grandfather's will has left Jake half of the struggling ranch, which makes the two embittered family members partners. The ranch is heavily mortgaged, with every note coming due.

As Will stubbornly refuses to consider selling the property, Jake is equally driven to put her business acumen to good use -- she has a winning racehorse -- and an ability to further antagonize her father with the notion that she may fare better than he.

Jake brings longtime friend "Morgan Murphy" (Bradley Cooper) home to help promote her winning racehorse and to find newfangled ways to pull the ranch from the brink of bankruptcy.

Will's best friend Amos Russell (M. C. Gainey), foreman, cook, and chief advice-giver on Dry Creek Ranch is bent on orchestrating a father-daughter reunion, even if it kills him. But even Amos cannot stop the avalanche of debt that threatens the Dry Creek Ranch. The ranch is in limbo. Ultimately to hold the property of four generations, Will and Jake must re-visit a strained past, forge a mutual respect and rebuild a withering relationship.

Television audiences reveled in Ms. Garth's performance for 10 seasons as Kelly Taylor on the hit prime-time soap "Beverly Hills 90210." Her other television roles include the series "The $treet," and the telefilms "A Loss of Innocence," as well as "Without Consent" and "An Unfinished Affair," which she also served as executive producer.

One of television and film's most distinctive presences, Lance Henriksen stars as the headstrong "Will Cooper," a former rodeo champion who is proud of his cowboy lineage and eager to keep Dry Creek Ranch as solely his own. Mr. Henriksen starred for three seasons in the dark detective drama "Millennium" and has been in such movies as "Scream 3," "Powder," "The Terminator," and "Alien 3." He also provided the voice of Kerchak, King of the Gorillas, in Disney's "Tarzan," and portrayed the President of the United States in the cable historical docudrama "The Day Lincoln Was Shot."

Rising television star Bradley Cooper plays "Morgan Murphy," a new kind of cowboy who could be the architect of a plan for Jake's ranch -- if she'll let him. This past season, Mr. Cooper was widely seen and noted in his role as "Will Tippin" on the hit spy adventure series "Alias." He also guest-starred on "Sex and the City" and has been seen in the feature films "Changing Lanes" with Ben Affleck, and "Wet, Hot American Summer."

Mr. Gainey's extensive credits include a role on the daytime drama "Days of Our Lives," and such films as "Con Air, "The Haunting," "Happy, Texas," "The New Guy," "Breakdown" and Disney's upcoming "The Country Bears," based on the theme park attraction "Country Bear Jamboree."

"The Last Cowboy" is executive produced by Larry Levinson ("Johnson County War," "Mark Twain's Roughing It," and "Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo"). Brian Gordon is supervising producer ("Johnson County War," "Texas Rangers") and Joyce Chopra ("Blonde," "Murder in a Small Town") directs.

Hallmark Channel is a 24-hour television network that provides high quality, entertainment programming that is family-friendly to a national audience of 47 million subscribers. The program service is distributed through 1,700 cable systems, DirecTV (Channel 312) and EchoStar (DISH Channel 185) direct-to-home satellite services and C-Band dish owners across the country. Crown Media Holdings, Inc. owns and operates the Hallmark Channel which, in addition to the U.S., is distributed worldwide to 110 international countries. The combined channels reach 92 million subscribers globally.

For further information, please contact: Joe Schlosser, +1-818-755-2626, or Pam Slay, +1-818-755-2480 both of Hallmark Channel.

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