CinemaCon 2022, which is currently underway in Las Vegas, offered attendees a glimpse of the violent Christmas movie, Violent Night. Starring Stranger Things actor David Harbour as Santa Claus, this festive outing from Universal Pictures takes a different view of jolly old St. Nick, making him more of a John Wick-style character. Harbour was present at the event, and made Violent Night sounds even more exciting than it already did, comparing the project to Die Hard amid a wonderful onslaught of f-bombs.
Violent Night has the perfect setup for a movie about an action hero Santa Claus. In the movie “a family is kidnapped by mercenaries on Christmas Eve, leaving St. Nick the only one capable of saving them.” Cue Santa cocking a shotgun before saying either, “It’s time to save Christmas,” or “Ho Ho Ho, motherf…”
“Escape is great. I’m a big fan. But what about movies that make you sweat? Don’t you love action movies? Who doesn’t love a great action movie, right? How about Christmas movies? So, what about a movie that’s a great action movie, and the greatest Christmas movie in one? Die Hard. F-cking Die Hard. Now what if…wait a minute, wait a minute. What if kick ass director Tommy Wirkola and the badass producers at 87North, you know, the maniacs who did Atomic Blonde and John Wick and Nobody and Hobbs and Shaw, were behind it all? And, wait a minute, what if I started in it as f-cking Santa Claus? Oh, do I swing a mother f-cking hammer? Yes. What you’re about to see is not an actual trailer, I don’t think, but you better not cry to somebody. You better not pout. I’m telling you why. Because Santa Claus is coming to town. Let’s f-cking go.”
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David Harbour will lead Violent Night as Santa Claus, with the actor joined by John Leguizamo (Encanto), Beverly D’Angelo (National Lampoon’s Vacation), Alex Hassell (The Tragedy of Macbeth), and Edi Patterson (Righteous Gemstones), Alexis Louder (The Tomorrow War), and Cam Gigandet (The Magnificent Seven).
Violent Night Sounds Like the Perfect Festive Treat
20th Century Studios
Lucky for us, ComicBook.com’s Cam Bonomolo was present at CinemaCon 2022, and comes bearing gifts. The brief footage that was shown from Violent Night sounds like everything you could want from an action-packed, R-rated Christmas movie starring David Harbour.
The clip reportedly began with those magic words “From the creators of John Wick” before showing David Harbour’s St. Nick bringing the hurt to the mercenaries foolish enough to try and ruin someone’s Christmas. The clip is described as being “gory, violent, and very R” as well as being “basically Die Hard with David Harbour’s Santa as John McClane.” The footage ends with a blood-splattered Santa saying “I’m jolly old Saint Nick,” and then killing a “henchman with an electric tree Star and fries him.” Violent Night truly does sound like the perfect festive treat.
Directed by Tommy Wirkola from an original screenplay written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller, Violent Night is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 2, 2022, by Universal Pictures.
