Santa's Workshop

Santa Claus: The Movie (titled onscreen simply as Santa Claus) is a 1985 Christmas fantasy film directed by Jeannot Szwarc and starring David Huddleston, Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, Judy Cornwell and Burgess Meredith. It depicts the origin of Santa Claus (played by Huddleston), and his modern-day adventure to save Patch, one of his elves (Moore) who has been manipulated by B.Z., an unscrupulous toy company executive (Lithgow). Santa Claus: The Movie was the last major fantasy film produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind, better known as the producers of the 1970s-80s Superman films. It was written by the husband-and-wife duo of David and Leslie Newman, who had also written the Superman films. Santa Claus: The Movie was released in the United Kingdom by Rank Film Distributors, and in the United States by Tri-Star Pictures on November 27, 1985. The film underperformed at the box-office, grossing $23.7 million on a $30-50 million budget, and received mixed reviews from critics. It has, over time, become a cult classic, especially in the British Isles.