“Call Me Crazy: A Crazy Five Film” premieres April 20 on Lifetime

Actress Melissa Leo arrives at the 2011 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Tea Party in Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg) ORG XMIT: CADS110

The Lifetime Original Movie “Call Me Crazy: A Five Film,” which features an all-star ensemble cast in five interwoven stories about how everlasting bonds of love and family can overcome life’s most challenging hurdles, debuts at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 20.

Former Tulsa resident and Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Melissa Leo is among a cast that also includes fellow Academy Award and Golden Globe winners Jennifer Hudson and Octavia Spencer as well as Brittany Snow, Sarah Hyland, Sofia Vassilieva, Ernie Hudson, Jason Ritter, Emmy winner Jean Smart, Lea Thompson, Academy Award nominee Melanie Griffith and Chelsea Handler.

Details on the film, provided by Lifetime, are as follows:

Through the five shorts named after each title character — Lucy, Eddie, Allison, Grace and Maggie – powerful relationships built on hope and triumph raise a new understanding of what happens when a loved one struggles with mental illness.

Laura Dern (Enlightened), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help), Bonnie Hunt (Return to Me), Ashley Judd (Missing) and Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones’s Diary) direct the anthology.

“Call Me Crazy” is executive produced by Jennifer Aniston, Marta Kauffman, Kristin Hahn, Kevin Chinoy and Francesca Silvestri, all of whom executive produced last year’s critically acclaimed Lifetime Original Movie Five.  The movie is produced by Sony Pictures Television, Echo Films and Freestyle Picture Company.

Written by Deirdre O’Connor (Five) and directed by Howard, “Lucy” follows the film’s title character (Snow), a law student who finds herself amidst the horror of schizophrenia, landing her in an institution where, through the support of a new friend (Ritter), meds and her psychotherapist (Spencer), she begins her path to not only healing, but a promising future.  Lucy also features Clint Howard (Fringe).

“Grace,” directed by Maguire and written by Howard J. Morris (Five), explores bipolar disorder through the experience of a teenage daughter (Hyland) whose mother (Leo) grapples with the condition. Also starring in Grace are Melissa Farman (Temple Grandin) and Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights).