New Line has picked up The Naughty List, a Christmas adventure pitch from writers Greg Erb and Jason Oremland. Beau Flynn will produce via his Flynn Picture Co. banner.
Plot details are being kept more closely guarded than the location of Santa’s workshop, but it is described as being a high-concept action comedy with shades of Guardians of the Galaxy or Dirty Dozen and Elf centering on a group of unlikely heroes who must band together in order to save Christmas.
“It’s been a while since a movie deconstructed the famous Christmas myths and mythologies and the Naughty List concept particularly hasn’t been touched,” said New Line production president Richard Brener. “We felt that if someone was going to do a naughty movie, it might as well be us. Hopefully by maintaining the spirit of Christmas with a slightly edgier sensibility, we can make a movie that appeals to everyone and therefore has the potential, in success, to become a franchise. When you do it correctly, it can be come a yearly viewed, evergreen title that can be spun off into other ancillaries.”
New Line has had great success with Christmas-oriented movies. The Will Ferrell-starring Elf is a modern-day classic, perennially on the air. It is also now a stage and television musical. The company also made Four Christmases, a comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon.
Wendy Jacobson, Flynn Picture Co.’s newly promoted director of development, will oversee for the banner. The company is in post on New Line’s earthquake adventure movie San Andreas, which is set to open May 29.
Erb and Oremland, who received story-by credit on Disney Animation’s Princess and the Frog, have several projects in development, including Ninja vs. Samurai for Sony Animation and Arad Productions and The Return of King Doug, based on the Oni Press graphic novel and being produced by Red Hour.
The duo is repped by UTA and Gotham Group.
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