animated Christmas film is written and executive produced by Richard Curtis, known for films like Love Actually, and directed by Simon Otto, who previously worked on the How to Train Your Dragon series. That Christmas features a star-studded cast of voice actors, including Bill Nighy, Brian Cox, Jodie Whitaker, and Rhys Darby.

The film features several overlapping stories of how everyone in the small town of ellington-on-Sea is handling the holiday season. There’s Danny, who’s recently moved to town with his hard-working mother, who - following a divorce - is struggling to adjust to Christmas without his father around and his seemingly-unrequited crush on classmate Sam. Sam has her own troubles, constantly plagued by anxiety over the antics of her chaotic twin sister Charlie. However, the biggest challenge comes on Christmas Eve, when a huge snowstorm brings problems to everyone - including Santa himself.

ScreenRant interviewed Richard Curtis to discuss returning to the Christmas setting, the joy of creating an animated film, and having an eccentric recording session with Bill Nighy.

Christmas Offers The Ultimate Deadline For One’s Personal Life

Why Richard Curtis Has Returned To A Holiday Setting In That Christmas.

Screen Rant: At this point, you've helped create so many iconic Christmas movies, and I'm really curious what it is about that time of the year as a setting that just sort of keeps drawing you back from a creative standpoint.

Richard Curtis: Well, actually, when I did Love Actually, I think the reason I chose Christmas was just kind of the deadline that you do feel: "If I'm going to go out with someone, I better tell them before Christmas," or, "I better get..." But what I love about Christmas in this film is the sense that it is the biggest time for family and community, is the time that you kind of take stock. Are you a happy family? Are you living in a happy community? How do the bits fit together?

And I've always felt that, in our lives, it's the time the family gets together. So I think that's what interests me about Christmas now, is what state is your family in? And are you going to get through it with happiness or complications? So that's what I love about it. And then, as I get older, I'm more and more interested in just how my kids are, how the people I love are, and how the people I live near are getting on.

Richard Curtis Had A Very Memorable Recording Session With Bill Nighy For That Christmas

The Eccentric Task At Hand Wound Up Being An All-Time Acting Highlight

The cast of this movie is really incredible as well. I hadn't run through the whole list as I was watching and I kept hearing voices and being like, "Oh, my gosh, they're in this too? That's wild." Were you there for a lot of the recording process at all as a producer?

Richard Curtis: Yeah, I was. The great thing about an animation is that everybody doesn't have to be free on February the 6th to March the 18th, do you know what I mean? So you can actually get people. And Rhys Darby, I think, who plays the funniest, stupidest character, I think he did most of his recordings from New Zealand. He didn't even come to us. And Brian Cox, who plays Father Christmas, was really busy in the sort of height of Succession, so he came before he filmed it and after he filmed it and all of that.

So I was often there, and then sometimes not there because the movie is directed by this wonderful man called Simon Otto. But what's so great when you are there is how the actors commit to it. Even though they're not in costume and they're not in a sleigh or in a lighthouse or in a storm, and yet you can see their bodies moving and them getting involved and imagining the situation. It's a joyful thing, and much less tense than a film set.

Are there any moments from recording sessions that particularly stand out to you for any reason?

Richard Curtis: I mean, mainly I just Bill Nighy, who's a friend of mine, he came in to do one recording where he had no words at all, where the entire thing was, "Pull this heavy lever, open this heavy door, pant as you're going upstairs," and just the idea that he turned up for a whole hour and never said a word, and yet he quite liked it. He said it was one of the most satisfying bits of his acting career.

More About That Christmas (2024)

When a small seaside town is hit by the blizzard of a century and threatens to cancel Christmas, a series of entwined tales about family and friends, love and loneliness — and Santa Claus making a big mistake unfolds in this hilarious and heart-warming comedy.

That Christmas will release on Netflix December 4.

Source: Screen Rant Plus