Since recovering from the nightmarish rollout of her directorial debut, Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde has attached her name and camerawork to a handful of promising projects. There’s an untitled Marvel film and a scripted drama about gymnast Kerri Strug. But this holiday season, we have been blessed with a delightfully unhinged twist in Wilde’s directing résumé — and, I would argue, the most natural progression she could make from the confusing collection of beautiful images that was Don’t Worry Darling.
According to Deadline, Wilde has signed on to direct Naughty, which will chronicle one woman’s quest to track down Santa Claus and persuade him to testify at her divorce hearing. For reasons that surely will not become clear to us anytime soon, Santa has a crucial piece of testimony that will help our heroine get custody of her son from her “gaslighting trash-bag ex.” Deadline reports that the movie’s vibe was “described” (by whom, pray tell?) as “Bridesmaids in the North Pole.” Did I mention the script was written by the same guy who came up with Cocaine Bear?
Naughty will be produced by Margot Robbie’s company LuckyChap, which most recently helped bring Barbie and Saltburn to fruition. I can’t imagine a better team to cook up the next big installment in the pantheon of deranged holiday movies. I can only hope Harry Styles gets cast as Santa?