Mariah Carey, Jennifer Love Hewitt to Direct Your New Fave Hallmark Movies

Mariah Carey made her feature-length directorial debut with Hallmark Channel's A Christmas Melody this past September, and the network's evidently pleased with her work. They've hired both Carey and early '00s queen Jennifer Love Hewitt to direct and executive-produce three original movies each, according to multichannel.com.

While the public may not associate the two actress-singers with auteurship (yet), this move makes sense: The premiere of Carey's directorial debut, which we lovingly deemed "a messy Christmas miracle," drew a respectable 3.94 million viewers according to Variety. As with Mimi's own performance in the film, what Melody lacked in subtlety it more than made up for in delightful high camp — and isn't that what makes for the very best TV movies?

Love Hewitt also brings relevant experience to the table, with a lengthy exec-producing resume to boot. She's directed three episodes of The Client List, her Lifetime series based on the network's successful 2010 TV movie of the same name, in which she also starred. She's extremely well-versed in watchable TV treacle, having starred in so much of it (who among us hasn't gotten sucked into a Ghost Whisperer rerun or two?). Continuing this work behind the camera is a savvy endeavor.

Sure, Hallmark Channel favors heartwarming, family-friendly fare that often involves finding love in a hopeless place (like a horse ranch, or a Christmas decorations store). But here's eight schlocky TV movies of yesteryear that, in our remake-crazed era, the Hallmark Channel should SERIOUSLY consider tapping Carey and/or Love Hewitt to reimagine:

- Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?
- Reckless Behavior: Caught on Tape, starring Antonio Sabato Jr. (should recast)
- Sexting In Suburbia, which frankly only gets more timely
- A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story, in which Meredith Baxter's out for blood
- Friends 'Til The End, the alpha and omega of Lifetime "deadly friend" movies starring Shannen Doherty
- Death of a Cheerleader, a Tori Spelling-Kellie Martin classic
- Crimes of Passion: She Woke Up Pregnant, which WILL make you swear off anesthesia
- Any and all Danielle Steel novel adaptations