Richard Curtis introduced Christmas cheer to an unseasonably drizzly day on the Annecy Worldwide Animation Movie Competition on Tuesday as he offered his first animated characteristic That Christmas in a Work in Progress session.
“I actually adore Christmas. Every time I’m sort of considering of tales, that’s the primary place that my thoughts goes to,” the screenwriter and director advised the viewers of animation professionals and college students.
Having made one of many definitive Christmas motion pictures of all time with dwell motion hit Love Truly, the Bridget Jones Diary and Notting Hill rom-com king has his sights on realizing an identical achievement in animation.
His Netflix-backed animation debut is directed by How To Practice Your Dragon animator Simon Otto (whose directing credit embrace Love, Dying & Robots) and produced by Nicole P. Hearon (Moana, Frozen) and Adam Tandy (The Thick of It, Detectorists) For Locksmith Animation.
“It’s the perfect time of the 12 months,” mentioned 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 purposeful?… There’s the disastrous household meal; the place I come from, there’s a giant, freezing Christmas swim within the North Sea, and there’s the dreadful stroll you must go on with individuals you don’t like.”
“Then there’s Christmas motion pictures, that have been all the time such an enormous factor once I was younger… It’s a Fantastic Life, I’ve seen it 40 occasions. I really like the Charlie Brown film. That’s my largest inspiration for this. There’s the opposite biggest ever Christmas film Elf. There’s White Christmas, which I used to look at with my dad each single 12 months.”
Curtis’ screenplay is customized from his trilogy of Christmas-themed youngsters’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 thought of creating a Richard Curtis film for the household,” mentioned Otto.
“Once we first talked about turning these books into an animated characteristic, the massive questions that popped up in my head have been how do you flip a movie about small occasions in these charming youngsters’s books into a giant, sweeping cinematic movie for the entire household?
“In animation, we have a tendency to inform tales with a single protagonist, huge journeys and fantastical concepts. For me personally, being a giant admirer of Richard’s movies, what makes a Richard Curtis film? I actually wished this movie to suit into his canon of films and dwell as much as them.”
Set towards the backdrop of an imaginary seaside city known 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 youngsters 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 novel backdrop that may make our viewers really feel like they’re sitting in the midst of the snow globe you are taking residence from a winter vacation,” mentioned 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 mentioned. “I went to America once 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 residence. My first movie The Tall Man was initially known as Camden City Boy, as a result of I really lived in Camden City. The subsequent movie was Notting Hill, as a result of I lived in Notting Hill and I’ve simply performed a movie known as Yesterday, which is ready in Suffolk and the Latitude Competition, as a result of I dwell in Suffolk and go to the Latitude Competition.”
Otto defined that he and his staff 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 sort of refining,” he mentioned.
Curtis mentioned engaged on characteristic animation had been “an intriguing course of” and worlds away from his experiences on dwell motion productions.
“Once you’re making actual life motion pictures, because it have been, it’s all simply print, and also you don’t see something till all of a sudden 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 possibly can write jokes into stuff you’re already seeing.”
Alongside A-list solid members Cox, Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittacker and Invoice Nighy, the voice solid includes a host of kid actors.
Curtis mentioned working with them within the recording studio slightly than on a set had been a extra rewarding course of.
“Some of the thrilling issues was to have actual time to work with children not beneath stress. I believe the performances by the youngsters on this film are so form of wealthy, and humane,” he mentioned.
“My expertise of working with children on film units is that it’s very scary for them. It’s onerous for them to settle down… I’ve been fortunate. The boy in Love Truly was wonderful however there have been a few different movies I’ve performed the place we’ve needed to minimize the youngsters in the long run.”
That’s Christmas launches on Netflix in December 2024.