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Noel Calloway, writer/director and stars, Geoffrey Owens and Tommy Davidson, of Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza






Atlas Distribution Company releases Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza in select theaters on December 6th, 2024.


NYC MOVIE GURU: Between entertaining the audience and provoking them emotionally and intellectually, which of those elements was most challenging to tweak in the editing room?

Noel Calloway: Entertainment is always first, especially for a family movie. You want to keep them engaged> I would use the cough medicine analogy: you want it to taste like candy, but you want to give them a little something that's going to make them better. So that's what I feel like the job is. They're feeling good, enjoying themselves, laughing and singing, but they're feeling something and might learn something. Most importantly, for me, they have something to talk about. Movies should bring people together. Whether you're talking about someone who hasn't seen it and you tell them about it or you're talking among people who are watching it, it brings people together and gives them something to talk about.

NYC MOVIE GURU: Since Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza is both a comedy and a drama, which is more challenging for you: to extract drama from comedy or comedy from drama?

Geoffrey Owens: As an actor, I don't think in terms of comedy or drama; I just think in terms of truth. So, I'm just as truthful as I can, then the writing will support whether it's supposed to have a comic or a dramatic effect, but I don't concern myself with that. If the writing is good, it'll be clear what the effect should be. The actor's job is to be truthful. That's my take on it, anyway.

Tommy Davidson: It's all-inclusive. Drama and comedy really act as a catalyst for the human character. You can't have one without the other. And then with the directing, if you don't get it right, it won't come out right. It's a very, very delicate process. So what you need is a laser beam. The technical, the drama and the comedy are all compressed into this laser beam. There was a scientist, Lise Meitner, and left it up to us to decide, "What are we going to do with it?" Now we have a second to just push something and take us all out of here. That's the kind of question that needs to be answered every holiday. That's the best kind of question that I've heard for this time of year. Comedy is a time bomb. Drama is a time bomb. But now's the time.

NYC MOVIE GURU: Do you think that the child bullies in Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza will introspectively look back at their childhood during their adulthood and regret their behavior?

TD: Yeah. This is how a child develops into an adult. It happens in these schools and with our kids. We have two ends of culture now. We've got one that says, "I can have anything that I want right now." and the other one says, "No, it doesn't work that way. We need to go with the tradition. We need to celebrate this thing of love and happiness and not your cellphone, not your Instagram account, not your computer games. We've got to finally stop that stuff so that the stuff can keep going.

NC: That's actual development. This is where I get into my youth development background. We're not supposed to be perfect. Kids are not supposed to have the answers. They're supposed to grow through it. I hope that in Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza, even the most ardent non-believers grew. 10 or 15 years from now, I hope that this catalyzes more growth where they do look back. Those are some of the best teachers. The class clowns make some of the best teachers. The bullies make the best teachers---if they are developed by the right adults. Sometimes it takes a special adult like Santa Claus, but, either way, that development happens and then better adults make better kids and better kids then make a better world.

TD: It's a necessary part of who we are. It's the one thing that separates us from the human race. If we were the human race, then we couldn't be mankind. Stop racing and be mankind.

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