The action-comedy Violent Night spotlights one of the most famous characters in history as Santa Claus takes on a group of home invaders, but the relatively low-budget adventure originally had much loftier plans, with director Tommy Wirkola noting that an earlier version of the story featured appearances from Mrs. Claus and some assistance from Santa’s trusty elves. With the film having only just landed in theaters last week, it’s already proving to be a surprising hit with both audiences and critics, sparking excitement from the filmmakers that a follow-up could move forward, leaving it possible that those abandoned ideas from the first film could return in a sequel. Violent Night is in theaters now.
“It sounds stupid, but I’m a big believer in not jinxing anything. I’m like, ‘Can we just wait a little bit?’” Wirkola shared with The Hollywood Reporter about sequel discussions. “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 clichรฉ to say, but we all had a blast doing this film. So I really hope we get to explore it more.”
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As for how Mrs. Claus would have been involved, Wirkola pointed out of the film’s final act, “It was supposed to have big visual effects, and even Mrs. Claus was involved in the third act at one point. That would’ve been fun. She came back with the sleigh and the reindeer, and then Scrooge [John Leguizamo] took off in a helicopter. And then there was a big chase with a bazooka, but we realized pretty quickly we couldn’t do that with our budget.”
Even if those elements were cut from the film, Wirkola detailed that there were scenes that were filmed that shed more light on the character’s backstory and how a seemingly brutal barbarian found himself delivering presents to children around the world.
“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,” Wirkola confessed. “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.”
Violent Night is in theaters now. Stay tuned for updates on the future of the franchise.
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