Richard Curtis returns to festive filmmaking with That Christmas, which streams on Netflix next month, here’s the trailer.
Love it or loathe it, there is no denying that Richard Curtis’ Love Actually is a modern Christmas favourite for many. With its saccharine stories of love, lust and, in the case of Andrew Lincoln’s character, let’s be honest, stalking, the film has indelibly inked itself into the fabric of the festive season. It’s almost become a tradition to run an article contributing to the Love Actually debate and who knows, one year we might even get around to it (we won’t – Ed).
Curtis returned to Christmas films last year with Genie, starring Melissa McCarthy and Paapa Essiedu, a big budget remake of his terrific 1991 television film Bernard And The Genie, which starred Alan Cumming, Lenny Henry and Rowan Atkinson – both films are available to stream on Sky Cinema.
His latest foray into festive filmmaking, and his first animated feature, is That Christmas. It’s the second full-length feature from British animation outfit Locksmith Animation. And the trailer has just popped up. This trailer, in fact…
The voice cast includes Brian Cox as Santa, alongside Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, Lolly Adefope, Alex Macqueen, Katherine Parkinson, Sindhu Vee, India Brown, Zazie Hayhurst, Sienna Sayer, Jack Wisniewski, Rosie Cavaliero, Paul Kaye, Guz Khan, Andy Nyman, Bronte Smith, Bill Nighy and Rhys Darby.
Simon Otto makes his feature directorial debut from a screenplay by Curtis and Peter Souter, adapted from Curtis’ children’s book The Empty Stocking.
That Christmas will stream on Netflix from the 4th December.
One last thing: the synopsis reads as follows:
Locksmith Animation’s heartwarming film marks the feature film directorial debut of renowned character animation and story artist veteran Simon Otto (How to Train Your Dragon trilogy). That Christmas follows a series of entwined tales about love and loneliness, family and friends, and Santa Claus making a big mistake, not to mention an enormous number of turkeys!
