This year, RLJE Films presents a brand-new kind of cozy, holiday season rom-com with Christmas with the Campbells. Directed by Hallmark filmmaker Clare Niederpruem, and co-written by Hallmark alum Barbara Kymlicka with Vince Vaughn, Christmas with the Campbell’s is what happens when the sweet, holiday rom-com really speaks its mind. In the movie, Jessie (Brittany Snow) isn’t going home for Christmas - not her home, at least. After a chilly breakup with her boyfriend Sean (Alex Moffat), Jessie is invited to spend Christmas with the Campbell’s - her ex’s family - since he won’t be making it home for the holidays. When she leaves the big city for the quaint small town, Jessie meets Sean’s charming cousin David (Justin Long), whose open arms are ready to catch her when she falls.

In their interview with Collider’s Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub, producers Vaughn and Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story) discussed the “exceptional” story behind Billingsley’s A Christmas Story Christmas, Vaughn’s inspiration to make a Hallmark movie with adult humor while respecting the originals, and the untouchable integrity of the Hallmark formula. Vince also shares what it’s like working with Larry David and the production team on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the likelihood of seeing sequels to films like Wedding Crashers, Dodgeball and Old School.

COLLIDER: For both of you, if someone has actually never seen anything you've done before, what is the first thing you want them watching and why?

PETER BILLINGSLEY: I might say a little after-school special, CBS School Break special, called The Fourth Man, which is where I met Vince back in 1989. And that's why, because Vince is my best friend, love the guy, and it turned out to be such a great little genesis point for us.

VINCE VAUGHN: Yeah, we were cast as best friends, and it was about steroid abuse, and so when Peter's character began to abuse steroids, they just kind of had him roll his shirt up slightly.

BILLINGSLEY: That was it.

VAUGHN: To indicate that there was some muscle bulging that was occurring. So yeah.

BILLINGSLEY: That's right.

I heard that's how you guys became friends and I love it. Also, what a movie.

BILLINGSLEY: Oh, thank you.

It really was disappointing it wasn't up for more Emmys.

BILLINGSLEY: Yes, I agree.

VAUGHN: It's hard to do a cautionary tale, a morality tale, if you will, and have it be entertaining when you're kind of drilling on a health message, but I think we pulled that one off.

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, appreciate that. Little known fact, scored by John Tesh.

I did not know that.

VAUGHN: Yeah, he was just collecting barrels and barrels from the Entertainment Tonight score, but he had time to score this one as well. And a nice score. Mr. Tesh did a nice job.

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, he did a very nice job. I agree.

Before we jump into why I get to talk to you guys today, I am curious, you obviously just did the Christmas Story sequel. Peter, I'm sure they've been asking you for a while to do something. Why now?

BILLINGSLEY: Sure. Well, I mean it's been 39 years, so it's quite a long time. So I think, to some degree, now or never. I think the idea of Ralphie as a dad was a very intriguing thought. I had been approached about things. Nothing ever felt right. This one's been in active development for four years, and a lot of the right pieces had to come together. We really needed the resources to build the original house and the whole neighborhood. I got to work with Vince as a producer on this, which was awesome, and bring back the whole kid cast. So, it's been a while that we've been working on it, and we didn't feel comfortable saying yes till all the right pieces fell, and then Clay Kaytis came in, and then we said, "Okay, we have the confidence that this was the time to go now."

Vince, you were a producer on it. What did it mean to you to be a producer on the Christmas Story sequel? Because that is a film that means so much to so many people.

VAUGHN: Yeah, what's interesting was knowing Peter for so long and him having such a phenomenal career as a producer and as a director. I know every Christmas the fandom for Pete, and the awareness, is so high he's always been reluctant just to go trade on it, but he did the story. He wrote with Nick Schenk who wrote Gran Torino and The Mule, and he really worked from a great place. It's like stepping into the patriarchy, the second stage of man. They really have a theme that I think is relatable and found a great way into the story.

It's just amazing. Pete's always so smart with film and collaborating and coming up with ideas, so to see him really be the leader on this and to take it, and for the movie to turn out as exceptional as it has, the movie's just terrific. I think there's something in waiting. It doesn't feel like it's just like, "Hey, how do we trade on what worked?" It's its own new story that feels like a proper evolution. That's what's so exciting about it.

Vince, I want to ask you an individual question. I am a huge fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm and I think Larry [David] is amazing. You got to play, I believe, Funkhouser's son. What do you think would surprise fans of Curb to learn about the actual making of Curb, and the way Larry operates?

VAUGHN: Larry's terrific. He's really fun. Jeff Schaffer, who kind of directs the episodes, and [Jeff] Garlin I've known for years from Chicago improv. I mean, all of them are super fun and really talented. Larry is just a very funny, very clever, and actually very warm, very supportive guy. So when you go to the sets to play, you just kind of come and have fun and there's a loose idea of where the scene's going, and it's really about listening and trying to be as real as possible with those characters in the moment. It's a lot of fun to go do. It's fun to get a chance to go play with those guys.

So jumping into Christmas with the Campbells, there's actually not that much known about the movie yet. How have you been describing the film to friends and family?

BILLINGSLEY: Well, I mean, I can say this is an idea that Vince has had for a long time. So he's always talked about this idea of doing a Hallmark holiday romance, but with rated-R dialogue and actually really, really funny.

VAUGHN: Yeah. I kind of thought of it because my wife watches Hallmark and I'm a bit of a cynic sometimes. So I'm like, I get the wish of the girl leaving the six-figure job in New York to go with the mysterious woodsman, but it's not without fear that something like this is something you can't just jump into. But inevitably in watching it, you do kind of get caught up in the hope. I think there's something with the holidays and Christmas, and romance in general, where we all want to believe that there's a chance for this, against all the odds, for true love to show up, and so it's why the movies really work.

So the idea was to have a Hallmark writer. We hired a Hallmark writer who was terrific, and had written a bunch of Hallmark movies. We had her just write a Hallmark movie, not knowing what we were going to do with it. Barbara [Kymlicka]. She wrote a great script, and then once she completed it, we shared the idea with her. We said, “We're going to go through and change the dialogue, commit the characters to being more adult and the language to be more R, stronger points of view, but we're going to keep the scenes and the sequences the same,” and thankfully she was super excited and on board.

I will admit I didn't know much when I hit play, and the dialogue...I was not expecting some of the stuff. I think there's a scene with Alex, with the breakup scene, and there are some other moments where I felt like I could hear your voice, Vince, coming through the page. So can you talk about which speeches or which lines of dialogue came right out of your brain?

VAUGHN: Gosh, I had a friend of mine, Dan Lagana, who's a writer, come in to do the pass with me because we had been looking at doing something together, and this felt like an easy fun thing to go do. Then [Alex] Moffat is so good at improvising, and Justin Long, Brittany [Snow], of course Julia Duffy, George Wendt, they're all so funny that I don't remember, always, where the dialogue was and what was improvised or what we did. They would kind of run with it.

So what we found, it was kind of a strange thing. I know it's this kind of Warhol painting. The making of it was interesting because we knew that we wanted to play around and make it R, but we like Hallmark movies from the point that if you watch it, you can get caught up and kind of feel warm and go, "Okay, that does feel good." So we weren't doing a kind of parody or mocking it, we were just making the characters accelerated.

So in the making of it, what became fascinating was we went in kind of open to play on the set. In a Hallmark movie, it's like a nine-act structure. They almost kiss, and then they don't kiss, and then there's maybe the temptation of another. So we were pushing the dialogue, and pushing what the characters said, but we were also playing with the rules of the universe. What happens if they do hook up, or this does happen? Through that process what we came to find out is you can break the law, the characters can say things that are different, and in fact, the audience loves it the more R they are, the more specific they are, they love that. But you can't break the rules. They can't betray the love affair.

What we found is that the audience really loves and is invested in these characters, and we really stayed with the nine-act structure. What you see is really the same things happen in those scenes that happen in the original intent. If you played with that, the movie fell apart, which was fascinating to find out. But they really like the characters being super comedic and having a stronger version of what's on the page.

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, and so much of the crew said that, too. We had a lot of Hallmark crew do this movie, standard Hallmark to have that look and feel. They said that for a long time, secretly, they had wanted to do a movie like this where the characters are allowed to break and say things that are kind of on all of our minds when you're going through a breakup in these moments, and they're able to say it in a really funny way. Because as Vince said, you still can't break the rules of the universe, so to speak, you have to keep that structure of the film in place.

VAUGHN: We did a good job of hiring. We had a Hallmark director. Clare's [Niederpruem] great, and our cinematographer, Kris [Carillo]. The editor's done a bunch of these movies, Simon [Davidson].

BILLINGSLEY: Simon. Yeah, our production designer, Gabriel [Jessop].

VAUGHN: Our composer. Everybody.

I like when things break the rules and do things that I'm not expecting, like this. So after making this, did you guys have any conversations of, "Well what's another genre, or another thing, that we can take our spin to and sort of do it with something else?"

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, for sure. I mean we would like to do more of these. You said you're breaking the rules, but you've got to find the right footing. I mean, even in the fourth quarter, I'll tell you, we took our time to find this through post. It was like two weeks until we had to deliver the movie, and we were essentially QC-ing the offline, and we're just watching it. Then Vince goes, "You know, I have an idea." In fact, he had five ideas for five great scenes that he wrote that night. We're two weeks before delivering the movie. Ran out quickly, shot them. They're great. They're all in the movie, because if it's that sort of eureka, now we know you can't mess with this, but they want this.

So it was a fun journey to get there, and I think we sort of know this secret sauce, so to speak, where you can be an outlaw and have some fun, and where you got to keep the restraint. So we're definitely looking forward to doing more of these.

Did either of you ever think about taking a role in this? Or Vince, if you were actually starring in it, do you think it would break the Hallmarkness of it because you're known as someone who does do certain dialogue that isn't in a Hallmark movie?

VAUGHN: Yeah, I didn't give it much thought. The secret to these rom-coms are people that are funny and also likable. A lot of people evaluate these things. You want to have characters that the audience can like and that also are good with comedy. So Justin, Alex Long, Alex Moffat, Brittany Snow, and JoAnna Swisher, they're all kind of likable and have good timing. So I didn't really think about playing it as much, but I really thought a lot about who the cast was. I think the cast is just tremendous and all very funny with it.

To me, it was just this odd kind of an Andy Warhol painting. Even the music, Peter saw the whole movie through post and did the color timing and all the choices with the score. You could do a score that's more telling you this is a comedy, but we really doubled down on the Hallmark score to say, “No, this is optimistic, true love is in the air, and take this seriously.” So the mashup of it is just very unique.

Peter, you've obviously directed a number of things. Did you ever think about directing it, or did you guys always want to go after someone who's made these Hallmark movies?

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, it was very important to have a core crew that have directed these movies, because we really wanted the look and feel to be of that. It's a really specific talent, and the crew that we put together has really done a lot of the great ones. So that was nice. I think there's an expression with these holiday romance movies, “Christmas in every frame,” I guess not unlike what I got going on here, but you want those lights, and the trees, and that feeling so no matter which way the camera goes, it feels warm and cozy and Christmassy. These guys are really experts at doing that. Then that allowed Vince to be there to help guide and pitch lines.

I mean, I can tell you one line that he pitched on set, it's when Julia Duffy is sitting down with Brittany when she's first made the choice to come home. Julia says, "Now, I know that Sean can be very aggressive sexually, and I just want you to know that that comes from my side of the family." It's a good example of, I think, Vince saying, "Hey, I have an idea, this is probably where we can live and play that's really funny." It is a really funny moment in the film, and when you have actors and actresses like Julie and George in our cast, they get it, they see it, and they just love to run with it.

VAUGHN: The model's more like a TV model where the director shoots it and does a great job. Obviously, we collaborate about staging and stuff, and then really through post it was Peter and I through the edit and all those final choices. We sort of take the role of what a film director would do in the television model where you are the creators and see it through post.

I believe you filmed this in Utah. Did you end up there because of a tax rebate or just because that's where you wanted to film?

VAUGHN: Maybe both. I mean, there was definitely a rebate and good crews, but aesthetically it really worked for the story of which it is, which is the girl from the city goes to, in this case, Idaho, I believe, a smaller more beautiful scenic rural area for the holidays.

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, and you have snow there that's almost guaranteed, which is great. That really sort lends to, I think, the visual beauty of the movie.

Obviously, you're making this on a budget. It's kind of an intimate movie. There are only, I believe, six main characters and a few extras, if you will. Were there any obstacles you came up against due to scheduling or budget?

VAUGHN: Yeah. Thankfully, we got a great cast, because they all really wanted to come and play and have fun. It felt, I think, original to them and something they could enjoy. So we were very fortunate with the cast that just kind of liked the material and liked the mission.

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, I mean, Moffat was on [Saturday Night Live] at the time, so he was pretty amazingly taking flights back and forth to make it work, but everyone was committed to doing it. Yeah, you have a small footprint, but sometimes that doesn't mean that you can't still be creative and have fun with it. I think the real snow helped. That does help in a budget, because you're not adding or having to make changes in post, or put snow blankets in. Our crew's used to this. I mean, this is a bit of kind of the schedule that they're used to, so for them they kind of knew what to do.

VAUGHN: I had a problem with just the over-commitment to the absurd. There's always a little drinking, "Ooh, I'm naughty, I'm having a glass of wine." But then our characters are drinking lean and sizzurp, making harsher stuff, and then the addictions go a little more, but they're still supportive of each other. Then the mom likes to cook, but then it's a real conversation about carbs and they just get crazier with the types of carbs, and the amount of them that they're eating. So you just go further with what the tropes are.

It was important to us, we called Hallmark after making the movie and told them about it, because we're not mean-spirited or looking to do a parody. It's really kind of a celebration, if you will, of keeping the love of Hallmark, but just making it adult and R, and they were super excited. They said they had thought about this, obviously, this type of movie before and that they were glad that we made it, and that we called them. I've showed it to some of my friends in comedy who were like, "This is nuts. I wouldn't even tell anyone, just have them watch it. It's so funny and crazy." It's like it's a Hallmark movie, and then all of a sudden it's like, "Did the mom just say that, or did they just do that?"

If you had seen my reaction as I was watching it yesterday, you would've seen my face, and my reaction to some of the dialogue because I truly went in not knowing-

VAUGHN: That's great.

BILLINGSLEY: That's good.

You know what I mean?

BILLINGSLEY: That's fun. Yeah. Totally.

I knew I was talking to you guys, and I knew there was something to it, but I didn't know what it was. Right at the beginning, with the kids seeing Santa, I was like, "Oh, got it. I get it. This is not what I-"

VAUGHN: How would you describe it, having gone through it? Because it takes the romance serious, but the language is adult.

No, it is a Hallmark movie with adult humor, unfiltered.

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, that's a good word.

Alex was very funny in the movie. He is an underrated player in terms of the way he can deliver. He's very funny on SNL, and his delivery is very good with Brittany.

VAUGHN: I agree. He does a great job. He's super funny, and is able to say things and still be likable, and audiences still don't find him toxic, which is great.

Which PA got tasked with doing all the Christmas lights on the house? And did you say, "I'm really sorry, but I need you to do this"?

BILLINGSLEY: That was a group job. Yeah, bit of a Clark Griswold special there, right? I mean, it's a beautiful, beautiful light show.

VAUGHN: Yeah, production designer was great, and Clare, the director, was great. They had a plan. The cinematographer. They just knocked it out and just went nuts for it. It's kind of a big buildup to this Christmas light show, which George Wendt is kind of struggling under the task of for the entire piece to finally get to the big night with the lights that don't disappoint.

By the way, if I was Hallmark, I would totally be down and excited that this was coming out, because this just shines a light on Hallmark movies, and will get people talking about them and wanting to maybe watch them.

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah.

VAUGHN: Yeah, totally. I mean, they do so well anyway. It was just important for us, because my wife really loves these, so it was important to call them, and they were great, and say, "This is really kind of a Hallmark. We keep the spirit, but it's just our minds are so comedic we can't help but go a little further with the point of view of the character." Yeah, they were excited and super supportive.

Obviously, you guys are good together, and you're friends, and you work together on projects. What is coming up for you guys that you're excited about in the future?

BILLINGSLEY: Well, there's something that's going to come out, also this Christmas. I realized, I think Campbell's is the fifth Christmas movie that I've worked on now. I personally love Christmas, which is a nice thing -

VAUGHN: Well yeah, but you were in Elf, you produced Four Christmases, Christmas Story.

BILLINGSLEY: Elf, Four Christmases, Christmas Story, Christmas Story Christmas, Christmas with the Campbells…

VAUGHN: Oh, that's right.

BILLINGSLEY: So there's five of them now, which is kind of awesome. I do love Christmas movies. I said I love Christmas. So this year we're hosting a podcast with Nick Schenk, which is called A Cinematic Journey. We kind of deep-dive into the themes of a lot of movies, and what really makes them resonate with us over time - a lot of the classics.

We're starting this year with Christmas movies, and some of the great classic Christmas movies. So it's a chance to really get underneath them and help share stories and show audiences again why these resonate, and why when you go to iTunes every year and you look at the Top 10 around Christmas, so many of them are Christmas movies from 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago that are in the main feed, and why we relate and love these so much. So we're doing, It's a Wonderful Life. I'm going to talk to Jimmy Hawkins, another child actor, who got to work with Frank Capra, which is pretty cool, and Beverly D'Angelo for Christmas Vacation, and just move through these great classics. So I'm really, really excited. We have partnership with Spotify, and it'll be coming out just after Thanksgiving this year.

I like it. Vince?

VAUGHN: Yeah, I did a series with Bill Lawrence, who I've known for years, who's terrific, called Bad Monkey, based on a Carl Hiaasen book about a detective in both Miami and the Keys. That'll come out for Apple next year. That had just a great cast, and I’m super excited for that.

Then Peter and I obviously did Christmas Story, which is great, that comes out, and the Campbell's movie. Then we have a couple other on the production side, things that we're working on and driving on to collaborate on as well.

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, we're always cooking up some stuff.

The thing that I've always found so interesting about movies - and maybe you guys can elaborate on it a little bit because you've both been in things that have stood the test of time - is when you're making something, you really don't know if it's going to be any good because you just don't know until it all comes together in the edit, and when you watch it. Then, for some movies, decades later people are still watching them and loving them, and other things just came and went. You've both been in things that have really stood the test of time. For either of you, what's it like being part of things that mean so much to so many people?

BILLINGSLEY: Vinnie, you want to take this?

VAUGHN: Yeah. I think it's stuff that gets in the culture. If you even look at Christmas Story or It's a Wonderful Life, those are both Christmas holiday movies that, at the time, did not do well, that were perceived as kind of misses, and as time went on, found an audience and resonated, and now are classic. So you just don't know what's going to connect into the culture.

I do think that when you're hitting sometimes on themes that people can connect to or relate to, or the characters are exploring universal human experiences, whether it's done through sci-fi or in grounded ways, and it feels like you're connecting to things in an authentic way, sometimes they resonate. People return to those themes, I think, and enjoy them. You never know. You're right. It's kind of this thing that kind of happens. Sometimes you go with the great stuff and all the right intentions and for some reason, it just doesn't connect. Other times you're surprised by just how strongly something resonates or connects over time. So it's kind of that mysterious elixir.

BILLINGSLEY: Yeah, I think that's true. I think it's also what keeps drawing you back to want to keep making more, in that sense of catching lightning in a bottle. I think it's, obviously, it's the million-dollar question that Hollywood continues to try to figure out. I think Vince hit on it. I mean, it's that kind of relatability, at least that's what I see in a lot of those. I mean, Swingers is a movie about friendship that feels very real, and that's a relatable way that's going to stay around. So is Crashers, it has such a relatable friendship, I think, at its core, and you love that with the comedy and all the great storytelling on top of it.

The biggest thing I hear for Christmas Story, over and over again, is, "That's my family." People really feel association with that family, that it felt very real and they can connect to it. I think it's hitting the things that feel relatable and then you kind of cross your fingers and hope.

Vince, I definitely have to ask you, Old School, Wedding Crashers, and now even Dodgeball, people are talking, and have talked about, sequels.

VAUGHN: Right.

Are sequels to any of those movies things that you really want to do, or do you think they'll actually happen? Because it seems like since these movies came out people have talked about sequels.

VAUGHN: It's funny, I was reluctant. Younger, I would see a comedy hit or a movie hit and they would race to a sequel, and I always pulled back because I felt like, “Well, just come up with another idea that's fun and explore something new.” I didn't want to just trade on the original. I think Christmas Story, the one that Peter just shepherded, is a good example where it's its own movie that's great, and not just trying to trade on what was good in the first one.

So where all of them are concerned, there was a sequel to Old School that at one point there was some momentum behind. I was less excited about it, and then there was a time I was more excited about it. Then others had moved on to different stuff. It just depends on the timing. Crashers, they were really driving on an idea, but I don't think they ever landed on something that me and Owen [Wilson] were completely excited about. There are some thoughts there. I think there would be the want to do something if it felt like it was a continuation that felt great and not obviously just the same story we told.

And then Dodgeball, recently, there's some momentum on. I had an idea that I thought was kind of a fun way back into that. So, there might be the writing of a script where that's concerned. It's the kind of thing that if it comes together in the way that Peter said Christmas Story did, where it kind of all fits and feels good and makes sense, then I think most people would be excited to do it. I definitely feel that way if Crashers or Dodgeball, or one of those, come together in a way where it feels like, “Okay, this is a standalone really good story that deserves to be told,” then I think people would be excited to do it. I think there's a chance for that to happen on a couple of those.

You mentioned Christmas Story, and I think of Maverick, which by the way, I'm not trying to compare Dodgeball to Maverick, but these movies, Christmas Story, Maverick, and a lot of these successful sequels recently, have used the real time that has passed for the actors to now tell the story.

VAUGHN: That's right.

I think that, for me, maybe Wedding Crashers 2, three years after it came out is the wrong time because it's just the same movie again. But seeing the characters after 15 years, and where they've been, and their mistakes, or are they still living the same lives. You see where I'm going with this?

VAUGHN: I think you're really right.

BILLINGSLEY: Totally.

VAUGHN: If you look at Christmas Story, it's really kind of coming-of-age. The boy wants a BB gun, which is sort of symbolic of responsibility. He kind of goes on this odyssey, whether he deals with Santa, and what that was like, he has a bully in his life that he has to navigate. So he kind of goes on these series of adventures and ultimately is rewarded with the gun in a way that's a bit surprising, but not perfect. It's a comedy. He still shoots his eye out and hits his glasses.

So now this next one is very different. Without giving away too much, I think the trailer suggested that the father's passed on, and now he is in that role with kids of, “How do you pull off a great Christmas?” Now he's sort of the patriarch as he's kind of struggling in his own life.

I think you're right in suggesting it, and that's true for Crashers, that you wouldn't want to go back and say, “Hey, they're trying to date again.” We've been on that odyssey. We've gone through that journey. You want to go to the next stage of life. I think time is a good thing when it comes to what is the next evolution of these characters for where they're at now. You have a great backstory, and then they're exciting people to take into the next chapter of their lives.

BILLINGSLEY: That's right. I think that was very well-said. I agree with you, I think Maverick did it beautifully, and it was great to see him grown-up, and he shed some of those qualities, but also he's still kind of the same guy that you would imagine him to be a little bit older. He still has the personality traits that we love. Interestingly, that movie was a lot more emotional than the previous one, and it kind of had a lot more heart in it too, and sort of a lot more weight. So I think using the age - and look, truth is you can't not use the age. I'm 51, so I'm not 12 years old anymore.

I'm shocked to hear this. Really just shocking.

BILLINGSLEY: Thank you for the compliment.

Christmas with the Campbell's premieres in theaters and on AMC+ on December 2. Check out the trailer below and first poster.