Every producer has a book they can’t put down, one that grabs you and doesn’t let go until you’ve figured out how to get it made. For me, that book was Jon Agee’s Little Santa.

I found it, fell for it immediately, and knew it needed to be a movie. Why has there never been a Santa origin story? So I did what producers do: I attached a writer I believed in, Martin Hynes (who co-wrote the Oscar-winning Toy Story 4), to adapt it. Then I brought on Bret McKenzie – yes, of Flight of the Conchords, and an Academy Award and Grammy winner in his own right, to write original songs. Once I had that packaged together, I brought it to Apple Original Films…, and now, they’re making it with us!

Little Santa answers a question kids have probably asked at least once around this time of year: how did Santa become Santa? It’s an evergreen musical comedy adventure that follows young Santa Claus on an Oz-like trek through the North Pole, meeting the offbeat friends who help him create Christmas, and remind the world to believe.

I couldn’t be more thrilled about who’s stepping in to direct: Peter Baynton, the Academy Award and Annie Award-winning director behind Apple’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. This reunites him with Apple, and it reunites all of us with WildBrain, who will animate the film, with pre-production coming out of WildBrain’s House of Cool.

This is one of those projects where every piece fell into place because the right people saw the same magic in the material that I did. Martin found the heart of the story. Bret is going to give it its soul through music. And Peter is exactly the kind of visual storyteller who can make an origin story feel both timeless and brand new.

We’re in production now, which means the next time I post about this one, I’ll have a lot more to share with you. For now, Merry Christmas in July! 

Read more from Deadline.

– Julia