That Christmas is an animated Netflix movie that will bring to life Richard Curtis’ much-loved children’s book trilogy, and it boasts an impressive voice cast, including Succession star Brian Cox as Santa alongside Bill Nighy, Rhys Darby, Guz Khan, Jodie Whittaker, Fiona Shaw, Sindhu Vee, Lolly Adefope and Katherine Parkinson.
This festive comedy movie follows a series of intertwined tales of family and friends with themes such as loneliness, love, a fallible Santa and an enormous amount of turkeys. Set in a charming seaside town, we'll see what happens when the residents’ usual Christmases are turned upside down.
“This has been the most amazing adventure, my first animated film,” says writer Richard Curtis. “It’s been especially exciting to see the whole world I imagined come to life beyond my wildest dreams — and populated by a dream bunch of actors, their wonderful voices turned into such rich and funny characters.”
The festive feature boasts a score from Academy Award® and BAFTA®-nominated composer John Powell (How To Train Your Dragon trilogy, Happy Feet, Shrek). Produced by Locksmith Animation with animation production from DNEG, here’s everything we know about the Netflix movie That Christmas…
That Christmas release date
That Christmas will premiere on Netflix in 2024, presumably in time for the festive season. That means it may give Richard Curtis’ yuletide favourite Love Actually a run for its money.
Is there a trailer?
No not yet. We assume the That Christmas trailer will be released in the build-up to Christmas and we’ll post it on this page as soon as it is.
That Christmas plot
That Christmas connects several different stories of family and friends in the run-up to the big day. The synopsis for the book tells us ‘Christmas is the same every year, isn't it? Same food, same routine, same visiting the neighbours and going for a walk. Except for the year of That Christmas. Find out what happens when traditions are upturned, when chaos reigns, and what's really important when people come together’.
That Christmas cast
The voice cast behind That Christmas includes Succession’s Brian Cox who voices Santa while Love Actually’s Bill Nighy (The Beautiful Game, Joy) is a character called Bill. Killing Eve’s Fiona Shaw is Ms Trapper and former Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker is Mrs. Williams.
Rhys Darby, Guz Khan, Paul Kaye, Katherine Parkinson, Lolly Adefope, Rosie Cavaliero, Sindhu Vee, Andy Nyman,Alex Macqueen, India Brown, Zazie Hayhurst, Sienna Sayer, Jack Wisniewski, Rosie Cavaliero, Kuhu Agarwal, Bronte Smith, Freddie Spry, Ava Talbot, and Rhys Darby also lend their voices to the film.
All about the That Christmas book trilogy by Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis’ trilogy of children’s books The Empty Stocking, Snow Day and That Christmas all tell of family stories taking place during the festive season.
The Empty Stocking follows twins Sam and Charlie. They are worried because Charlie has been very naughty this year and it’s unlikely she’ll get anything in her stocking. But then Santa makes a big mistake.
Snow Day sees Danny turn up at school only to find it deserted, except for his least favourite teacher.
That Christmas shows what happens when Christmas traditions fall apart and chaos reigns. The stories were all illustrated by the award-winning artist Rebecca Cobb.
All about Richard Curtis
Director and scriptwriter Richard Curtis has a number of hit movies to his name, including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Notting Hill, Yesterday and Mr Bean. He also wrote About Time, Genie, The Boat That Rocked and the hit 1980s TV comedy series Blackadder. He also wrote the screenplays for Bridget Jones’s Diary, War Horse and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again.
