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'Violent Night': 'John Wick' meets Santa in first intel for David Harbour's Christmas action flick
Santa Claus is comin' to town, and he doesn't negotiate with terrorists.
David Harbour's done his fair share of action movie work over the past few years, from Stranger Things to Hellboy to joining the MCU as Red Guardian in Black Widow. But despite his varied career, Harbour's never done anything quite like Violent Night. In fact, it kinda sounds like no one's ever done anything like Violent Night before.
Harbour was on hand at CinemaCon earlier this week to preview the Universal film for theatrical exhibitors and play up its violent yet festive premise ahead of a release this coming holiday season. And when the Stranger Things star took the stage, he held nothing back.
"Escape is great. I'm a big fan," Harbour told the CinemaCon crowd (via ComicBook). "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***ing 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 starred in it as f***ing Santa Claus? Oh, do I swing a mother f***ing 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***ing go."
Harbour does indeed play Santa Claus in the film, and it sounds like he's definitely killing people along the way, but this isn't just another Santa's Slay we're talking about. This time around, Santa's doing his best to save Christmas when he comes across a family that's been kidnapped by mercenaries on Christmas Eve. If there's one thing Santa's not down with, it's people being bad when he's making his midnight ride, and according to those who saw the footage, he's definitely out to deliver payback, swinging hammers are bad guys and even frying one of them with an electric Christmas tree star. Ouch.
Remember at the beginning of the holiday comedy Scrooged, when we see a fake trailer for something called The Night the Reindeer Died? Violent Night sounds like the closest thing we'll ever get to a real version of that, and that sounds like pure holiday fun for the grown-ups.
Violent Night is in theaters December 2.
