Christmas With The Campbells Release Date, Cast, Trailer & More
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Even if you don't actively watch Hallmark holiday movies, you can almost write your own in your head. You know how they look, how they feel, how every story beat goes. They are as predictable as they come, creating a comfort food of romance and holiday spirit. No one really watches a Hallmark movie for innovation... until now.
What if someone revamped the typical Hallmark holiday movie by making it a bit naughty? That's exactly what producers Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley, and the showrunner of "American Vandal," have done. The result is "Christmas with the Campbells," a new holiday comedy that aims to show what would happen if the characters in a Hallmark movie were allowed to say what they really mean, unfiltered and hilarious.
Granted, this has been a bit of a low-key movie, with virtually no info coming out until the moment the trailer dropped recently. If you're as confused as we are intrigued by the premise of "Christmas with the Campbells," here is everything you need to know about the upcoming movie.
Christmas with the Campbells release date and where you can watch it
It is not a huge surprise to say that "Christmas with the Campbells" is being released around the holidays. You want to give audiences enough time to watch the movie before Christmas Day in case they want to obsessively rewatch every scene and learn the dialogue, and also give it enough time that audiences won't just have the day after Christmas to watch a Christmas movie, because only sociopaths watch Christmas movies after December 25.
Instead, "Christmas with the Campbells" is coming out on December 2, 2022, putting it smack in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. As for where you can watch it, "Christmas with the Campbells" will be released simultaneously in limited theaters and on the AMC+ subscription service, as part of the streamer's pledge to release one brand new film every single week.
Now, before you start complaining about having to pay for yet another streamer, AMC+ has some hidden gems. There's the fantastic gangster drama "Gangs of London," and also "Interview With the Vampire," the shockingly great new adaptation of the classic book, as well as the Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie-starrer "Spin Me Round."
What is Christmas with the Campbells about?
"Christmas with the Campbells" subverts the Hallmark movie while staying true to the spirit of these cheesy stories. In an interview with Collider, Vaughn explained his wish of doing essentially a full-on Hallmark movie, with the same crew giving it the same look and feel, even hiring a Hallmark writer to craft a script worthy of the movie label. And then the fun began. Vaughn explained:
"[Kymlicka] wrote a great script, and then once she completed it, we shared the idea with her. We said, 'We're going to go through and change the dialogue, commit the characters to being more adult and the language to be more R, stronger points of view, but we're going to keep the scenes and the sequences the same,' and thankfully she was super excited and on board."
Indeed, the trailer (watch it below) looks just like what you'd expect of a Hallmark movie, until Moffatt's character starts to outright speak his mind, saying he didn't really care for his girlfriend, but the sex was great. From there, it becomes clear this is going to be a very raunchy comedy with R-rated dialogue and lots of sex talk, while still following the Hallmark movie tropes.
This last part was essential to Vaughn, who said they never set out to outright break the rules of a Hallmark movie. "What we came to find out is you can break the law, the characters can say things that are different, and in fact, the audience loves it the more R they are, the more specific they are, they love that," Vaughn said. "But you can't break the rules. They can't betray the love affair."
The cast and crew of Christmas with the Campbells
"Christmas with the Campbells" comes to us courtesy of Hallmark movies writer Barbara Kymlicka, with rewrites from Vince Vaughn and "American Vandal" showrunner Dan Lagana. The film is also produced by "A Christmas Story" star, and one-time Marvel movie villain, Peter Billingsley. Clare Niederpruem, another Hallmark holiday movie veteran serves as director.
As for the cast, it doesn't get much better than this for a Hallmark-like movie. You have Brittany Snow ("Pitch Perfect") and Alex Moffatt ("Saturday Night Live") as a couple breaking up right before the holidays, with Julia Duffy ("Newhart") and George Wendt ("Cheers") playing Moffatt's parents, who invite Brittany Snow's character to their home for the holidays anyway. Justin Long plays a handsome cousin who stirs up romance, and JoAnna Garcia Swisher plays a childhood friend of the family with some saucy intentions.
Watch the Christmas with the Campbells trailer
if you still want to know more about "Christmas with the Campbells," then you can watch the trailer above and read the synopsis below:
The traditional holiday romance movie gets a little more fun this year with a spin from co-writers Vince Vaughn and Dan Lagana. In Christmas With The Campbells, when Jesse gets dumped right before the holidays by her boyfriend Shawn, his parents convince her to still spend Christmas with them, and Shawn's handsome cousin, while Shawn is away.