The Santa Clause is one of the best Christmas movies of all time and a must-see this Christmas. However, behind this Christmas movie are some surprising, little-known facts about the making process.
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Although the movie didn't hit theaters until the 1994 holiday season, the story of Santa Claus actually began in 1989, with comedy duo Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick. Although they made their living as traveling comedians, Benvenuti & Rudnick were bored with life on the road and began trying to develop their ability to write comedy shorts into something a little more substantial. One day, Rudnick himself came into the duo's office with the refrain that would become The Santa Clause.
Rudnick and Benvenuti found an interested party in their work in Outlaw Productions, a relatively new company looking to expand its offerings. Outlaw executives saw great promise in the script and purchased the rights to the film for $10,000. They also saw a lot of problems that needed to be addressed, so a major overhaul of the film was undertaken.
“ They gave us a list of notes. We thought of notes as a checklist, so we went through the script and put in every note they gave us, ” Rudnick recalled.
“ And the script is terrible ,” Benvenuti added.
Ultimately, Jeffrey Katzenberg and the Walt Disney Company's Hollywood Pictures division hired Outlaw on the film, and the casting of Tim Allen created a delay of nearly a year while he was away filming a new season of Home Improvement. That gave them more time to rewrite the script, this time to further solidify the film as a Disney-style family Christmas comedy. To achieve this, Allen invited Benvenuti and Rudnick to tour with him, and Katzenberg and screenwriter Janet Brownell worked on further details to add emotion to the story.
They eventually came up with a film script, four years after Benvenuti and Rudnick's original idea.
When The Santa Clause began its talent search, Tim Allen was a stand-up comedian who had just made the transition to acting with the hit television series Home Improvement, which itself relied heavily on his stand-up routine. Realizing that they had a hit on their hands with the Disney-produced series, executives began looking for a vehicle that would allow Allen to make the leap to the big screen at a time when television stars were hard to come by. Allen, too, was eager to see if he could become a movie star. Having seen The Santa Clause and been impressed by its unique story, he called Katzenberg to express his interest, and Katzenberg came to see the project.
Despite some skepticism about whether Allen could make the film work based on his TV fame, the producers eventually agreed that he was the right choice, but not before considering other options. Other actors considered for the role of Scott Calvin included Tom Selleck and Allen's future Toy Story co-star, Tom Hanks.
The first draft of what would become The Santa Clause was based on a story about what would happen if someone killed Santa Claus and then had to take his job. It was a dark plot, and it turned out that before Jeffrey Katzenberg and The Walt Disney Company got their hands on the script, the story was even more horrifying. In the final film, Santa dies by slipping and falling off Scott Calvin's roof after Scott startles him, but in earlier drafts, he falls off the roof not because he's startled, but because Scott shoots him.
With Allen as the star of the film, the producers of The Santa Clause began searching for a director to helm the project. Names like Ron Howard and Steve Rash were mentioned as candidates, but John Pasquin's name kept popping up as the top contender despite his lack of feature film experience. Pasquin had a lot of experience working with Allen, having directed the first episode and first season of Home Improvement. Although Allen was eager to work with him on The Santa Clause, Pasquin initially turned down the project.
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