Chris Columbus, the director of movies like Home Alone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and writer of Gremlins and The Goonies, and his 1492 Pictures banner have teamed up with Jeremy Zag and his ZAG Entertainment, a company that specializes in children and family friendly entertainment franchises, as well as Ocean Blue Entertainment to finance and produce a new movie titled 12/24.

The movie will be a combination of both live action and animation, telling the story of two brothers on a quest to save Christmas. The screenplay will be written by Matt Lieberman, based on an original idea by David Guggenheim (Safe House, Stolen).

Of the news, Columbus said:

The movie follows two bothers who discover an old home video, and decide that they’re going to prove that Santa Claus is real. To do this, they set up an elaborate trap on Christmas Eve, which actually works but leaves Santa incapacitated. The two brothers then must set off on an epic adventure, with a little help from Santa’s magic elves, in hopes of saving Christmas.

Also producing the movie is Guggenheim through Madhouse Entertainment, and producing along with Columbus through 1492 Pictures is Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe.

Other holiday-related titles from 1492 are Jingle All the Way and Christmas with the Kranks. They’ve also been behind Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Night at the Museum and its sequels, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, the pre-reboot Fantastic Four and sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, The Help, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Pixels, which Columbus also directed, and more.

No release window for 12/24 is known yet, but December 24th of an upcoming year sounds like a solid bet.

[Source: The Wrap]