The David Harbour-starring holiday movie Violent Night is certainly a new offering to watch out for. The action-comedy Christmas film, directed by Tommy Wirkola, sees Santa taking on an elite team of mercenaries, who breaks into the home of a wealthy family on Christmas Eve. As fun as the premise sounds, the R-rated movie takes ‘violent’ in its name very seriously and makes a point that “this Nick is no saint.” In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller talk about how they conceived that idea while Harbour explains the theme of the movie.
Casey and Miller, who met in high school detention, have stayed friends ever since. They revealed that they came up with the basic premise for Violent Night in the ’90s while attending high school together in Bloomington. Miller revealed that back in the day they made many Die Hard parodies for their town’s public access channels. He explains, “Like a lot of towns back in the ’90s, our town had public access channels, and we got our own show.” Adding, “It was like Saturday Night Live for high school kids. It was like joining a football team or something. It was a bunch of nerds who wanted to put on a TV show.” He further went on to describe the early version of their story as “just the idea of Santa stumbling across some criminals. That version of Santa was way more of a comedic idiot.” After the success of Sonic the Hedgehog, the duo pitched the idea to executives with the working title ‘Die Hard Santa’ and got an instant nod.
Given the movie’s premise Harbour’s casting is just perfect, he has the ability to be imposing, brutal yet sensitive at the same time. The actor explains the premise as “kind of a Knives Out house, where there’s a matriarch (Beverly D’Angelo), and there’s all these people vying for position.” He further divulges that when the team of mercenaries comes in to rob the place and have everybody trapped, “Santa first doesn’t want anything to do with it, but there’s a little girl who has a radio to him, and he wants to save her.” He further makes a nod to Santa’s “past that was a little less than nice.” Elaborating he adds, “It’s John Wick meets Miracle on 34th Street. You will believe in Santa Claus again, and you will believe that he’s a violent mother—er.”
Violent Night premieres on December 2 you can check out the trailer below: