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Santa Claus bashing a mans skull in with a sledgehammer.
A drunken St. Nick projectile vomiting from his sleigh.
But they never entirely abandoned the notion of a badass Kris Kringle.
We usually didnt even tell people about the idea.
We didnt think a regular production company would like it, let alone a major Hollywood studio.
It was preposterous that anyone with money would think this was a good idea.
AndViolent Nightwas at the bottom of that, says Casey.
It wasnt even on the list.
It was an honorable mention.
Their agents, however, couldnt stop laughing and immediately began talking up the pairs proposal around Hollywood.
We were kind of shocked because we always thought the idea was so stupid, Casey remembers.
Pat and I were like, Why cant we have a super-gory R-rated movie for people whodolike Christmas movies?
In turn, Miller and Casey leaned into an unexpected yet plausible explanation for Santas history of violence.
Thats such a big part of the kind of one-man-army movies likeDie Harditself, Miller says.
InDie Hard, you know he is a cop the whole time.
So we were like, What is Santas backstory that makes him so tough?
What would have made him venture up to the North Pole?
We couldnt believe that people were so into this idea at every turn!
The object of this movie was always just to be a fun time, continues Casey.
And Universal execs didnt make us water it down.
They really embraced everything this movie could be.
