Christmas in July is officially here.
Dallas Jenkins, the creator of the hit Bible-based series “The Chosen,” just dropped the trailer for his upcoming holiday flick, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” set to release in theaters Nov. 8.
The film, distributed by Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company, is based on Barbara Robinson’s 1972 novel by the same name. The movie is directed by Jenkins and the screenplay is a collaboration between “The Chosen” showrunner, Platte F. Clark, Darin McDaniel, and Ryan Swanson.
In an interview with Deseret News, Jenkins described the creation of the holiday movie as “a dream come true,” calling the project “the movie I’ve most wanted to make my whole career.”
“And I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone other than Lionsgate and Kingdom, who make great movies while supporting filmmakers,” he said.
Jenkins once described “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” as “the movie that I was born to make,” adding, “If I could only make one more movie for the rest of my life, this is it.”
The book — and the upcoming movie — chronicles the lives of the Herdman children. The six kids are known for being troublemakers and one day show up at a church, where Judy Greer, the director of the annual Christmas program, is in over her head.
At that point, the Herdmans take over the pageant, leaving the townspeople worried they will ruin everything. Ultimately, though, the misfit kids make the program better than anything they’d seen before.
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The story, Jenkins explained in an Instagram post, is — at its core — a story about “the least of these.”
“It’s similar to what ‘The Chosen’ is trying to do, actually,” he said. “It’s trying to take the story of Christmas and story of Jesus and taking down from stained glass windows and pretty paintings … and revealing what it actually is. And through the eyes of these kids, they actually do that.”
He sees the upcoming debut as his shot at making “a new Christmas classic.”
The film stars Lauren Graham of “Gilmore Girls” fame, Judy Greer from Marvel Cinematic Universe films like “Ant-Man,” comedian Pete Holmes, and “The Chosen” star Elizabeth Tabish.
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