What screams “Bill Murray” more than a variety show Christmas special? I know, not much.
Sure, at first it sounds absurd. Almost insane — like, reliving the same day over and over kind of insanity. But Murray is known to take left turns constantly in his career, and since he isn’t bogged down with answering questions about whether he will — or will not — appear in “Ghostbusters 3” anymore, why not make a Christmas special? I mean, this is a man who allegedly walked up to a person at a Wendy’s, stole some French fries from their tray and whispered “No one will ever believe you.” So, I think we can all agree this man is capable of anything. Even his urban legends are awesome.
The Christmas special, titled “A Very Murray Christmas,” will reunite Murray with director Sophia Coppola (they made “Lost in Translation” together), which the two will also co-write with Mitch Glazer. The premise is that Murray (playing the elusive “Bill Murray”) is worried nobody will show up for his Christmas special due to a bad snow storm. But “through luck and perseverance, guests arrive at the Carlyle hotel to help him; dancing and singing in holiday spirit,” according to Netflix. Which would normally not appeal to me at all, but this is Bill Murray we are talking about, so it sounds amazing.
The guests will include “George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Paul Shaffer, Amy Poehler, Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Lewis, Phoenix, Michael Cera, Maya Rudolph, Rashida Jones, David Johansen, Frederic Moulin, Julie White, Dimitri Dimitrov and more,” according to Rolling Stone. People are even encouraged to use the hashtag #MurrayChristmas I guess for the next seven months.
Though this is not Murray’s first foray into the holiday spirit — who can forget “Scrooged?” — it is his first foray into exclusive original streaming content. Anyway, it sounds like something Bill Murray would do, and then pretend he doesn’t know what you are talking about if you ask him about it years later.
The JOE-DOWN 