As I arrive at my 4,000th posting here at borg, I wanted to share with you my personal thanks and share a Christmas wish that combines the best of all worlds. It’s a video created by a film production studio in Vienna, Austria, called Dockyard. They contacted me early this month about a video with an animation component they were working on for their clients–a video Christmas card featuring a snow globe, Santa Claus, and something else.
So why did the studio contact me? Check out the video first:
If you’re not familiar with her novels, you should be. Connie Willis is probably the best living science fiction author, winner of all the science fiction writing awards, penning classics like To Say Nothing of the Dog, Lincoln’s Dreams, Bellwether, Remake, Doomsday Book, and many others. But you might not know she’s also a fan of the Christmas story, and has written two collections of stories, Miracle and Other Christmas Stories and A Lot Like Christmas. This year she was tapped to select the contents for American Christmas Stories, an all-new collection of 132 years in 59 stories from well-known and lesser-known writers and authors, from Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, and Langston Hughes, to Ed McBain, Shirley Jackson, and Ray Bradbury. Readers will find writers across the ages combining multiple genres with the Christmas tale like science fiction and horror. All reflect the American experience from 1872 to 2004. It’s an incredible look at culture in America, both good and bad, and it’s available now here at Amazon.
“The waters speak the truth, that they do. Only now have you lived long enough to know the child that you shall always remain. That which dwells in the heart can never be lost to the spirit.”
Some artists’ works are so brilliant, so evocative, so memorable, and so successful, that whenever they draw, sketch, or paint, it turns heads. One of those artists is Bill Sienkiewicz. His 1980s comic book artwork changed the way comic books are approached by artists and readers, forever. His trademark abstract works and his recurring sketches of people making the news are regular features that can make you happy to open your social media application for the day. Put Sienkiewicz together with a Santa Claus story? It’s as good as it sounds, and it arrives in stores beginning this week.
We’ve seen some incredible work on Christmas stories in the comic book medium before. Take for example the modern Batman opus, 2011’s Batman: Noel by Lee Bermejo (we reviewed it here). Now this year we haveSanta: My Life and Times, An Autobiography, a lavish, updated edition to a 1998 project. It features a holiday story written by Jared Green (and Santa, of course), with vibrant and festive watercolor art, cover to cover, by Sienkiewicz. As are all good storybooks, this is a shiny, over-sized hardcover. You will get lost in the details of every page of art. Marvel at all the wintry critters. Peek inside windows. The beauty of nature’s magic is everywhere. By my count there are not only more than 100 illustrations by Sienkiewicz in this book, there are 100 poster-worthy illustrations.
The storytelling is very Victorian and grand, neither modern nor silly. This is the same voice found in the classic 1823 Clement Clarke Moore holiday staple, A Visit from St. Nicholas(aka ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas). Green’s voice of Santa is like a conversation in a good Dickens hero’s friendly voice. Think Bob Cratchit. This is a deep, rich, well-thought out fantasy. The story spreads pure goodness and joy, the kind you’ll want to read to little kids (or adults, or cats), complete with Dr. Seussian sound effects peppered about. No doubt this is the same Santa that influenced the likes of Mr. Rogers, Bob Ross, Steve Irwin, and Jim Henson. The look and feel matches the spirit of the Rankin/Bass Christmas classics perfectly.
November of course means Novembeard–where participants grow beards to raise awareness of men’s health issues. Or, just because beards are cool and it’s become an annual tradition. So who better to celebrate than the actor who has made a beard work for him throughout his career? That would be Kurt Russell. As Snake Plisskin in Escape from New York. As MacReady in The Thing. As Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China (stubble counts). (Russell only had a moustache in Tombstone so we’ll skip that one). As the sheriff in Bone Tomahawk. As John Ruth in The Hateful Eight. As Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. Even his son Wyatt knows how to sport a cool beard–He wore won this year as the star of Lodge 49. So what’s left for the guy with the cool beard to take on next? How about playing the guy with the best beard of all time? That’s Santa Claus, of course.
The best part? In this trailer for Netflix’s new The Christmas Chronicles, Russell isn’t playing just another “Bad Santa” role. Sure, it looks like a traditional family Christmas show, but Russell revealing how cool Santa is (and always has been) and lines that sound like they were written for Jack Burton? That’s an inspired choice.
He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so you’d better clean up your act right now.
The movie stars Benji star Darby Camp and The Babysitter’sJudah Lewis as kids who want to film Santa in action. Look for co-stars Kimberly Williams-Paisley(Father of the Bride, Darrow & Darrow) as their mom, plus Lamorne Morris (New Girl, The Guild) and Martin Roach (Kick-Ass 2, The Shape of Water).
Check out this new trailer for The Christmas Chronicles:
Premiering yesterday in England during a charity special, the BBC released a preview of the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas Special showcasing Simon Pegg comedy film partner Nick Frost as Santa Claus. We saw a brief shot of Frost in the season finale last Saturday. Who would have thought that goofy cop in Hot Fuzz and Pegg’s roommate turned zombie in Shaun of the Dead would make such a fine jolly old elf?
You might also be familiar with Frost from the third film in the famed Cornetto Trilogy, The World’s End, which we reviewed here at borg.com earlier this year. Frost went a little more serious as a salsa king in Cuban Fire, released in April.
Frost originally become known from his role on Spaced, the British sci-fi TV series with Pegg and Jessica Hynes, and appeared with Pegg yet again in the Comic-Con alien flick Paul. You can find him in cameos in Grindhouse, Attack the Block, and Snow White and the Huntsman.
After the break, check out two trailers for the annual Brit tradition, the Doctor Who Christmas Special:
The original 1947 production of Miracle on 34th Street, as holiday movies rate, is rivaled only by 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Both delve into the magic of Christmas, Miracle with an undertaking by a man claiming to be Santa Claus to convince two skeptics of his claim by making wishes come true with the help of a lawyer and the United States post office, Wonderful Life with its hard-working dreamer at a low moment in his life having his life turned upside down by an angel who shows him how important he is to those around him, A Christmas Carol style.
In November 1986, Miracle on 34th Street became the first movie shown on television in a colorized format. It is still broadcast each December in both black and white and colorized, and despite most colorization in film detracting from a movie, I think this is one work where colorization reveals details you might not notice otherwise. Written and directed by George Seaton, Miracle on 34th Street has one key scene, a turning point, that is so well-directed and performed that it may be one of the best scenes, and certainly one of the most classic, ever committed to film.
