After six years in development, DreamWorks is finally throwing its “Office Christmas Party,” hiring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, T.J. Miller and Kate McKinnon to star in the holiday comedy, the studio announced Friday.
The film, which follows an office Christmas party that gets out of hand, faces a tight turnaround, as it will head into production this spring before Paramount releases the film on Dec. 9. It’s the second DreamWorks film to head to Paramount in recent weeks, after the studio took over “Ghost in the Shell” from Disney.
Will Speck and Josh Gordon (“Blades of Glory”) are directing the movie, which they first pitched to DreamWorks in 2010. Since then, numerous writers have tried to crack it, including Tim Dowling (“Pixels”), though the current draft is credited to Laura Solon and the writing team of Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky.
Scott Stuber and Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady and Daniel Rappaport will produce, while Speck and Gordon will executive produce. The film is based on Casady’s original idea for a workplace comedy.
Aniston and Bateman worked together on “Horrible Bosses 2.” They’re both represented by CAA, Lighthouse Management and Hansen Jacobson.
Miller stars on HBO’s “Silicon Valley” and can currently be seen in “Deadpool.” He’s also repped by CAA, as well as 3 Arts Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman.
McKinnon stars on “Saturday Night Live” and will soon be seen in Sony’s “Ghostbusters” reboot. She’s repped by UTA, Principato-Young Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson.