Brian Cox to Voice Santa in Netflix’s Animated ‘That Christmas’ With Bill Nighy, Fiona Shaw

Netflix on Wednesday unveiled the voice cast of CG animated feature film That Christmas from Locksmith Animation (Ron’s Gone Wrong) and director Simon Otto’s (How to Train Your Dragon trilogy). The movie will star Brian Cox as Santa, Fiona Shaw as Ms. Trapper, Jodie Whittaker as Mrs. Williams, and Bill Nighy as Bill.

They are the residents of a charming seaside town where things turn upside down one Christmas. The film will debut on Netflix later this year.

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That Christmas is an adaptation of the children’s book series (The Empty Stocking, Snow Day and That Christmas) written by BAFTA Award-winning and Oscar-nominated writer and director Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, Yesterday). “A film of firsts, it marks Curtis’ first animation project as well as the directorial debut for animation veteran Otto,” Netflix said.

The film also stars Lolly Adefope, Alex Macqueen, Katherine Parkinson, Sindhu Vee, India Brown, Zazie Hayhurst, Sienna Sayer, Jack Wisniewski, Rosie Cavaliero, Paul Kaye, Guz Khan, Andy Nyman, Kuhu Agarwal, Bronte Smith, Freddie Spry, Ava Talbot, and Rhys Darby. The score comes from composer John Powell (How To Train Your Dragon trilogy, Happy Feet, Shrek).

Produced by Locksmith Animation with animation production from DNEG, the film features Nicole P. Hearon (Moana, Frozen) and Adam Tandy (The Thick of It, Detectorists) as producers.

That Christmas is part of Netflix’s slate of original animated features, which includes the likes of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,  Nimona, The Sea Beast, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, Over the Moon, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Klaus, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget; Leo, and Back to the Outback.

The streamer’s upcoming animated features include Thelma the Unicorn, Ultraman: Rising, Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie, Spellbound, In Your Dreams, The Twits, Pookoo, and an untitled Wallace & Gromit film.

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