Tis the season  for loads of holiday-themed films to  start flooding in!

Fatman may be about Christmas and features Santa Claus – but this is one movie that is specifically aimed at the grown-ups!

Written and directed by Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms, the  black comedy action thriller  stars Mel Gibson as cranky St. Nick and features  Walton Goggins, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Canada’s own Chance Hurstfield.

To save his declining business, Chris Cringle (Mel Gibson), also known as Santa Claus is joined by his wife Mrs Claus (Marianne Jean Baptiste) who iare forced into a partnership with the U.S. military. Making matters worse, Chris gets locked into a deadly battle of wits against a highly skilled assassin (Walton Goggins), hired by a precocious 12-year-old after (Chance Hurstfield)  receiving a lump of coal in his stocking.

Mostly filmed in Ottawa,  Fatman depicts Santa as bitter, drunk and broke and entirely devoid of Christmas spirit, commercially outpaced by sweatshops and raging that he’s “full of a loathing for a world that’s forgotten”. So with this in mind, casting  Mel Gibson actually kind of works given the fact that he’s pretty much lost any chance of being Mel Gibson the Movie Star again but he keeps giving it the old College try.

Who really stands out in Fatman is 14 year old Vancouver native Chance Hurstfield as the  brat Billy. His take on the evil spoiled kid would scare any parent! Chance was apparently so good on his audition tape the directors were almost nervous to hire him thinking that they would have a real problem on set.  They soon found out what a good actor Chance was, because he is truly one of the sweetest kids on the planet!  Unleashing his inner bad-kid was a complete joy for Chance!

FATMAN is  available on  VOD (English & French), DVD, Blu-ray on November 24

Bonnie Laufer spoke with Chance Hurstfield and writer/directors Ian and Esholm Nelms about the film.