The British romantic-comedy, Love Actually, has become a Christmas perennial since its release in 2003. Its writer-director, Richard Curtis, said viewers who are sick of it after two decades might enjoy his latest, That Christmas, as an alternative.

"Instead of watching Love Actually, they can watch That Christmas," Curtis told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "I've written this film for them."

Love Actually tells the love stories of eight couples plus several other tangential subplots, and it appears in That Christmas.

A group of kids snowed-in on Christmas watch a live-action movie on TV, and the TV screen displays a famous scene with Keira Knightly -- an idea of director Simon Otto and the animators.

The snowed-in children star in one of several stories in That Christmas. Santa Claus (voice of Brian Cox) has trouble with a snowstorm and mixes up the gifts for a naughty and nice pair of grade school twin sisters.

Another grade schooler, Danny's (Jack Wisniewski) mother has to work on Christmas, so he spends the holiday with his teacher, Ms. Trapper (Fiona Shaw). Danny is also in love with one of the twins, and hopes his father will come to visit for Christmas.

"I did learn some lessons from Love Actually," Curtis said. "You can't just go from one to the other to the other. Sometimes you've got to bed down and focus on one of the stories."

Since the stories of That Christmas come from three different books, Curtis and Souter added connective tissue between the characters.

"If all these kids lived in the same place, how would they know each other?" Curtis asked. "Would one kid have a crush on another kid, and would they all go to the same school and therefore would they be in the same play?"

That childhood crush, like Thomas Brodie-Sangster's storyline in Love Actually, is autobiographical to Curtis.

"I can remember and tell you their names," he said. "There was one girl when I was 6, one girl when I was 8 and one girl when I was 10."

The 90-minute adaptation of That Christmas still required embellishment of the 40 or so pages of each book. Curtis said he struggled more when adapting longer books like Bridget Jones's Diary and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

"The books are quite small," Curtis said. "It was a joy to add to it. The pain of adapting novels is all the stuff you've got to cut."

He said the Christmas setting allowed him to include more dramatic themes in the romance and comedy. For example, Danny's divorced parents and the teacher's loneliness are emphasized during the holidays.

"I felt like Christmas freed me up to say this is what it feels like to be sad, to be worried about your kids, to be a bit lonely," Curtis said. "I think it's a good time, almost, to be extreme rather than to be moderate."

Curtis joked about people having such an extreme aversion to Love Actually that they shudder when it comes on television. With good humor about his omnipresent film, Curtis said there is room for many Christmas movies in December.

"There's a lot of free time over Christmas," he said. "Maybe you can find time to watch both and squeeze in White Christmas, as well."