After movies like Violent Night, Fat Man, Red One and even with a Violent Night sequel on the way, you’d think Santa movies with an action twist had probably reached its critical mass. However, the action icon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, now suits up to play Kris Kringle for the comedy The Man With the Bag, which also features another muscular action star, Alan Ritchson. The concept is similar to Red One, except this time, Santa loses his bag of presents and enlists the help of a former thief to get it back.
Amazon MGM Studios has premiered the newest trailer for The Man with the Bag and just like Red One, Santa has a critical problem, but with the help of a master thief, Christmas could be saved when he gets his bag of presents back. However, to embark on such a mission, Santa has to join the naughty list just for associating with a thief. This is also a theme in Violent Night 2, where Santa finds himself on the Naughty List, and he has to relearn the meaning of Christmas to get his powers back.
Schwarzenegger and Ritchson are joined in the cast by Berkeley James, Michael Cyril Creighton, Liza Koshy, Kyle Mooney, Jane Krakowski, with Ken Jeong and Awkwafina.
The official synopsis reads,
“When Santa’s (Schwarzenegger) iconic red bag is stolen by a rogue elf with a grudge (Awkwafina), Christmas is suddenly at risk. With his biggest night of the year fast-approaching, Santa recruits a thief (Ritchson) from his ‘Naughty List’ who quickly assembles a crew of criminally skilled misfits — with a little help from elves and reindeer — to pull off the most unexpected heist of their lives.”
Adam Shankman, whose resume includes Bringing Down the House, A Walk to Remember and Stop! That! Train!, sits in the director’s seat for this film with Allan Rice penning the script. Meanwhile, producers on the movie include Lawrence Grey, Ben Everard, Reg Tigerman, Dan Spilo and Alan Ritchson.
The Man with the Bag premieres on Prime Video next month on December 2.