Only in Theaters December 2

To hell with “all is calm.”

From 87North, the bare-knuckle producers of Nobody, John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Bullet Train and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw comes a coal-dark holiday action-comedy that says you should always bet on red.

When a team of mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage, the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus (David Harbour, Black Widow, Stranger Things series) is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.

The film also stars Emmy winner John Leguizamo (John Wick), Cam Gigandet (Without Remorse), Alex Hassell (Cowboy Bebop), Alexis Louder (The Tomorrow War), Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones) and Beverly D’Angelo (National Lampoon’s Vacation franchise).

Directed by razor-edged Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Dead Snow franchise), Violent Night is produced by 87North’s Kelly McCormick David Leitch and Guy Danella. The original screenplay is by Pat Casey & Josh Miller, the writers of Sonic the Hedgehog. The film’s executive producer is Marc S. Fischer.

Universal Pictures will distribute the film in all territories

If money was no object, would you have shown more of Santa’s backstory?
Yes, we actually shot a lot more of him just talking and telling the story, and it was some of the best acting in the film. David was so good in those scenes, as is Leia Brady as Trudy. But in the end, it was just too long, and we had too much dialogue and heavy exposition in the middle part of the movie. So we decided to trim down the details of the backstory, but if we’re lucky enough in the future to do another movie, maybe we can explore that again. Or we can just let the audience fill in the blanks. But [co-writers] Josh [Miller] and Pat [Casey] wrote a very detailed backstory of how we found the North Pole, the Elves and how Santa discovered giving gifts gave joy. So David shot all of that storytelling.

You just touched on it, but there’s already sequel talk. So have you guys thrown any ideas around yet?
A little bit. It sounds stupid, but I’m a big believer in not jinxing anything. I’m like, “Can we just wait a little bit?” But, of course the writers have talked about it, and I have thrown some ideas out there. We don’t see the North Pole, we don’t see Mrs. Claus and we don’t see the elves. There were also a few ideas that we loved in the script, but we had to cut them because we couldn’t afford to shoot them. It’s such a cliché to say, but we all had a blast doing this film. So I really hope we get to explore it more.

Noomi Rapace as Mrs. Claus? [Writer’s Note: Wirkola and Rapace have collaborated twice already with The Trip and What Happened to Monday. She was also his first choice for Gretel in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.]
(Laughs.) She would make an amazing Mrs. Claus. Crazily enough, I haven’t thought about casting that role yet, but she would be great.