#‘That Christmas’: Richard Curtis on His Joy of Writing a Family Film and That ‘Love Actually’ Easter Egg

Writer and director Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually) is about to get a holiday season spotlight on Netflix. He is the co-writer and executive producer of Locksmith Animation‘s That Christmas, based on a trio of his children’s books, which debuted on the streamer Saturday.

Starring Brian Cox as Santa Claus, along with the voices of Fiona Shaw, Rhys Darby, Jodie Whittaker and Bill Nighy, the movie was directed by former DreamWorks Animation creative Simon Otto (How to Train Your Dragon films, Love, Death & Robots). It tells the story of some of the inhabitants of Wellington-on-Sea, a fictitious town in the U.K. “when the worst snowstorm in history alters everyone’s plans — including Santa’s.”

For Curtis, working on the animated film for several years marked a change of pace. “It was lovely writing a film about children and families,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I think in my career, I have had a tendency to sometimes take a long time to catch up. I was still writing falling in love films when I’d already been with my wife for 10 years.” After a chuckle, he adds about That Christmas: “And this is me at last catching up with the fact that children have been a main element of my life for the last 20 years.”

What kind of entertainment does the famous writer and filmmaker like to watch with his family over the festive season?

“Over the last decade, there has been a bit of a tendency in England to show multi-murder shows on Christmas Day,” he shares. “There’s a lot of Miss Marple and stuff like that. And I sit down with the family to watch things, and we think, ‘Oh this is a bit grim. Oh, our favorite parent has just been murdered.’ So I’m glad to be part of a merry, rather than a murderous Christmas” with That Christmas.

There is a reference to family holiday traditions — and his own work — in the film that made Curtis laugh. “That was one of the funniest moments in the whole production,” he recalls. “There’s a scene where the kids are talking about how they don’t particularly enjoy some of the Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas walk. And one of the things was they have to watch is the boring Christmas movie. I was assuming that when they were cutting to the boring Christmas movie, it would be a black-and-white version of Miracle on 34th Street.”

He was in for a surprise: “I sat down one day, and when it said, ‘boring Christmas movie, cut to the TV’ — it was Love Actually.”

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That Christmas is now streaming on Netflix.