Richard Curtis says Genie appealed to his ‘constant love of Christmas movies’

And, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Curtis revealed that it was his "constant love of Christmas movies" that encouraged him to update his previous film.

“You know [I] love a joyful Christmas movie," he explained. "And I had an idea of how I could make the old film – which was about sort of being a lonely singleton – into a film about family and kids and all those things that I'm increasingly worrying about."

He added: "So it was a work that appealed to my constant love of Christmas movies and what I'm thinking about a lot now."

He added that the new version changed "pretty well everything" from his previous film, not just the change of location. He also gave lead character Bernard a family and, this time around, the genie is a woman – with McCarthy playing the role that was originated by Lenny Henry.

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Meanwhile, star Paapa Essiedu admitted that the idea of appearing in a Christmas film had long been something that appealed to him.

"I love Christmas movies," he said. "I've actually not seen the first movie as well – I've not seen Bernard and the Genie. But yeah, I love Christmas movies.

"I really remember being a kid and just the movies that were on TV at Christmas were just better, right? That's when the movies that had been recently in the cinema would make it onto the TV. So it's just really exciting – all the best movies are on at Christmas, so you have to be in a Christmas movie eventually!"

Genie is now available on Sky Cinema and NOW, while Love Actually is also available on NOW. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.

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