MOVIE SHOWING Saturday, December 14th @ 8pm(ET) on TNT
Academy Award ® -winning actor Whoopi Goldberg stars
in and Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Garth Brooks
contributes new music to the Turner Network Television (TNT)
Original film CALL ME CLAUS, a heartwarming comedy about the
true meaning of Christmas.
Goldberg and Brooks also executive-produce CALL ME CLAUS,
along with Lisa Sanderson, CEO of Brooks' Red Strokes Entertainment.
The two-hour film is a Columbia TriStar Television production,
in association with Red Strokes Entertainment and Goldberg's
One Ho Productions. Goldberg's producing partner, Tom Leonardis,
and Jay Benson are the producers. Peter Werner (The 70s, Almost
Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story) directs from a script by
Sara Bernstein & Gregory Bernstein and Brian Bird with
a story by Paul Mooney and Sara Bernstein & Gregory Bernstein.
In the film, Goldberg plays Lucy Cullins, a slick and cynical
producer at the Shop-A-Lot home-shopping network, who is desperately
in need of some Christmas spirit. Help arrives just in the
Nick of time, when Lucy hires an actor to play Santa Claus
on her station's holiday programming. She gets more than she
bargained for: The actor, not so coincidentally named Nick,
really is Santa Claus and faces mandatory retirement after
200 years on the job. Nick must find his replacement by Christmas
Eve or the world will face dire consequences. His sights are
set on Lucy, but can he thaw her heart in time? Academy Award®--nominated
actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne (The Madness of King George) stars
as Nick, the soon-to-be-retiring Santa Claus; Tony Award-winning
actor Brian Stokes Mitchell (Broadway's Ragtime and Kiss Me
Kate) stars as the network boss; Victor Garber (Titanic) stars
as Lucy's stage manager; and Taylor Negron (Stuart Little)
stars as Santa's head elf.
Brooks contributes new music to CALL ME CLAUS: A re-make
of Louis Armstrong's song, "'Zat You, Santa Claus?";
the title track, "Call Me Claus"; and a moving gospel
hymn he wrote, "Ready for Jesus," recorded by Vicki
Hampton solely for the movie. The film also features three
more songs from Brooks' popular The Magic of Christmas CD:
"Winter Wonderland," "Sleigh Ride" and
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." The Magic
of Christmas, with the new songs from CALL ME CLAUS, is currently
in stores.
"One of the reasons I wanted to make this movie is because
I just wanted to have a little holiday special for my grandkids,"
Goldberg said. "As we're faced with little kids running
around being afraid of things that happen in the world, I
think it's the holidays that we owe them, to keep their belief
in Santa Claus and all other mythological figures alive so
that they can have their childhood."
"My greatest hope for this film is that we get families
gathering to watch it together, and that the music enriches
the experience for them," said Brooks. "Christmas
is everything for me. It is a holiday where it seems that,
for 24 hours, people take down the walls. Christmas has become
one of the biggest money holidays, but right in the center
of all of it is this 24 hours of being with your family, loving
one another. Everything's all right for 24 hours, and that's
how it should be, especially with the recent tragic events
that have affected all of us." |
