Richard Curtis introduced Christmas cheer to an unseasonably drizzly day on the Annecy Worldwide Animation Movie Competition on Tuesday as he introduced his first animated function That Christmas in a Work in Progress session.
“I actually adore Christmas. Every time I’m form of considering of tales, that’s the primary place that my thoughts goes to,” the screenwriter and director instructed the viewers of animation professionals and college students.
Having made one of many definitive Christmas films of all time with reside motion hit Love Really, the Bridget Jones Diary and Notting Hill rom-com king has his sights on realizing an analogous achievement in animation.
His Netflix-backed animation debut is directed by How To Practice Your Dragon animator Simon Otto (whose directing credit embody Love, Demise & Robots) and produced by Nicole P. Hearon (Moana, Frozen) and Adam Tandy (The Thick of It, Detectorists) For Locksmith Animation.
“It’s the most effective time of the 12 months,” stated Curtis of the Christmas season. “I really like all of the questions. It says to you: ‘Have you ever been naughty? Have you ever been good? Is your loved ones practical?… There’s the disastrous household meal; the place I come from, there’s an enormous, freezing Christmas swim within the North Sea, and there’s the dreadful stroll it’s important to go on with individuals you don’t like.”
“Then there’s Christmas films, that have been all the time such an enormous factor after I was younger… It’s a Fantastic Life, I’ve seen it 40 occasions. I really like the Charlie Brown film. That’s my greatest inspiration for this. There’s the opposite best ever Christmas film Elf. There’s White Christmas, which I used to observe with my dad each single 12 months.”
Curtis’ screenplay is tailored from his trilogy of Christmas-themed kids’s books – The Empty Stocking, Snow Day, and That Christmas.
“We’ve taking these three books and woven them collectively to inform one interconnected story and introduced Netflix on board with the concept of creating a Richard Curtis film for the household,” stated Otto.
“Once we first talked about turning these books into an animated function, the massive questions that popped up in my head have been how do you flip a movie about small occasions in these charming kids’s books into an enormous, sweeping cinematic movie for the entire household?
“In animation, we have a tendency to inform tales with a single protagonist, massive journeys and fantastical concepts. For me personally, being an enormous admirer of Richard’s movies, what makes a Richard Curtis film? I actually needed this movie to suit into his canon of films and reside as much as them.”
Set in opposition to the backdrop of an imaginary seaside city referred to as Wellington-on-Sea, the story unfolds within the run as much as Christmas Day, which is sort of derailed when a monster blizzard hits the area, hampering the return of the mother and father from a social occasion within the subsequent city and leaving their kids to fend for themselves.
That Christmas, Locksmith Animation/Netflix
Courtesy of Locksmith Animation.
Within the backdrop, Father Christmas (voiced by Brian Cox) is doing the rounds.
“It’s a singular backdrop that may make our viewers really feel like they’re sitting in the course of the snow globe you are taking dwelling from a winter vacation,” stated Otto.
The blueprint for Wellington is the seaside city in Suffolk, the place Curtis has a house, and an even bigger city subsequent door.
“I’ve had a really cowardly film profession” he stated. “I went to America after I was younger, and I set a film in Boston after which I realised I didn’t know something about it. So, I got here dwelling. My first movie The Tall Man was initially referred to as Camden City Boy, as a result of I truly lived in Camden City. The subsequent movie was Notting Hill, as a result of I lived in Notting Hill and I’ve simply carried out a movie referred to as Yesterday, which is about in Suffolk and the Latitude Competition, as a result of I reside in Suffolk and go to the Latitude Competition.”
Otto defined that he and his crew began creating storyboards and drawing outlines from the books as Curtis was writing the screenplay.
“We began drawing after which because the pages got here in, we have been form of refining,” he stated.
Curtis stated engaged on function animation had been “an intriguing course of” and worlds away from his experiences on reside motion productions.
“Once you’re making actual life films, because it have been, it’s all simply print, and also you don’t see something till instantly you flip up on the day, and there’s the set. To see what I’ve written meant in actual phrases and in visible phrases, was so thrilling, as a result of then you may write jokes into stuff you’re already seeing.”
Alongside A-list solid members Cox, Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittacker and Invoice Nighy, the voice solid incorporates a host of kid actors.
Curtis stated working with them within the recording studio relatively than on a set had been a extra rewarding course of.
“Some of the thrilling issues was to have actual time to work with youngsters not beneath strain. I believe the performances by the children on this film are so form of wealthy, and humane,” he stated.
“My expertise of working with youngsters on film units is that it’s very scary for them. It’s arduous for them to relax… I’ve been fortunate. The boy in Love Really was wonderful however there have been a few different movies I’ve carried out the place we’ve needed to reduce the children ultimately.”
That’s Christmas launches on Netflix in December 2024.
