Judy Greer is in over her head as the director of her’s church annual Christmas event in the trailer for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Dallas Jenkins, who created the biblical series The Chosen, directed the Lionsgate holiday film that hits theaters Nov. 8. Pete Holmes, Molly Belle Wright and Lauren Graham also star in the movie that centers on Grace Bradley (Greer) volunteering to direct the annual Christmas pageant before realizing that the involvement of the unruly Herdman children could lead to chaos for the community.
“Jesus was born for the Herdmans as much as he was for us,” Greer reasons in the trailer. “We’d be missing the whole point of the story if we turn them away.” Jenkins helmed the film from a script he co-wrote with Platte F. Clark, Darin McDaniel and Ryan Swanson that is based on author Barbara Robinson’s 1972 book of the same name. Producers on the project are Kevin Downes, Jon Erwin, Andrew Erwin, Darin McDaniel, Chet Thomas and Daryl Lefever.
Jenkins, who helmed the 2017 faith-based comedy The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, is best known for creating The Chosen, a drama series centering on the life of Jesus Christ. The show’s fourth season debuted for streaming last month.
“I remember fairly early on thinking that if we believe faith is relevant in the culture, then what’s stopping us from making things like others do in Hollywood who have their own message or agenda?” Jenkins recently told The Hollywood Reporter about his success with faith-focused projects. “The best filmmakers are personal and have a voice. I thought: ‘Well, what’s wrong with me having my voice?’”
