In just four days, Bill Murray and his celebrity friends will bring joy and laughter to people all around the world with the Netflix original holiday special “A Very Murray Christmas.” Directed by Sofia Coppola… uh, what? There’s a "wtf is this" quality to the whole project. Is it an ironic joke? Something sincere? A riff on celebrity specials of yore?
"For me, the idea for the special all started from talking to Bill Murray about how I wanted him to do a week at the Carlyle singing old standards,” Coppola recently told Vulture about why she put this Christmas special together. “I love seeing him in a tuxedo. He and Mitch [Glazer, the writer-producer] were talking about doing something for TV and wanted to talk to me about that. We were having drinks one night, and somehow the idea came together. What I like is to have Bill indulge for my own pleasure and amusement —that’s what other people like to see from Bill too. I always enjoy seeing him in distress and then getting out of it. So the idea of putting him in a situation in the special where he’s having the worst Christmas, and then it all turns around, was something we responded to, because there is so much expectation around that time of year and it’s easy to be disappointed. I do think the holidays have a sort of nostalgic melancholy and joyfulness to them, and Bill is so good with showing both those qualities. There’s that melancholy moment after all the presents are unwrapped.”
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So it’s basically a semi-sincere homage to the classic variety show and belting out Xmas standards with a bunch of celebrity friends that include George Clooney, Paul Shaffer, Amy Poehler, Julie White, Dimitri Dimitrov, Michael Cera, Chris Rock, David Johansen, Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Lewis, the band Phoenix, Rashida Jones, Miley Cyrus and more.
“A Very Murray Christmas” debuts exclusively on Netflix Friday, December 4th. Watch the newest trailer —which features Cyrus singing “Silent Night” among other celebs signing yuletide classics— below.