Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jack Reacher’s Alan Ritchson are to co-star in a Christmas movie for Amazon/MGM called The Man With The Bag.
Of all the films Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in across his long career, 1996’s Jingle All The Way was undoubtedly one of them. And, almost 30 years on from that festive comedy, it’s announced that the Austrian Oak is making another Christmas film, this time for Amazon MGM Studios.
It’s called The Man With The Bag, and according to The Hollywood Reporter’s plot summary, sees Santa Claus on the hunt from his stolen, enchanted bag. This leads Santa to “team up with Vance, a reformed thief and denizen of the naughty list” to find it, with Vance’s daughter and a “team of misfit elves” also taken along for the adventure.
We’re pretty sure that the container Santa used to shuttle his gifts around is more commonly referred to as a sack than a bag, but it’s probably a reference to the old Christmas song that we definitely didn’t learn about thanks to Google. A film with a title like The Man With The Sack would also likely have led to film outlets making all sorts of puerile jokes, which of course is something we’d never do here.
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The project was previously announced last year, when Alan Ritchson – the actor who shot to fame thanks to the success of the Jack Reacher series, also for Amazon/MGM – was attached as one of its stars. Behind the script is Allan Rice, and behind the camera (directing) is Adam Shankman, a former dancer and choreographer who’s made such films as The Wedding Planner, Rock Of Ages and Disenchanted.
There’s no word on who exactly is playing which character in the film so far as we can discover, but Ritchson would make a logical choice as Vance, the reformed thief. That just leaves Santa. Arnold Schwarzenegger has to play Santa, doesn’t he? It’s a part he was born to play.
There’s no word as to when The Man With The Bag is due for release, but we’d put strong money on December 2024 or 2025. Call it a hunch.
More on Schwarzenegger’s latest festive adventure as we get it. In the meantime: why is santa’s sack so full? Because of all the gifts, you clot.
