From Universal Pictures, learn how the movie “Last Christmas’ came about from the initial story, idea, or commission, through screenwriting, casting, shooting, sound recording and pre-production, editing, and screening the finished product. For this site, the focus is how George Michael’s music inspired the film.
Read the production notes. To make reading through the document easier, below are the passages specifically about George Michael:
Last-Christmas-Movie-Production-NotesDescription of the movie (page 2)
Set in London during the 2017 holiday, Last Christmas features the music of
George Michael and Wham!, including the bittersweet holiday classic of the film’s title. The film also premieres brand-new unreleased material by the legendary Grammy Award-winning artist, who sold more than 115 million albums and recorded 10 No. 1 singles over the course of his iconic career.
Backstory and how George Michael got involved (page 4)
Approximately 10 years ago, producer David Livingstone began the development of a romantic comedy based on George Michael’s song “Last Christmas.” Livingstone says that it all originated with his obsession with a Jimmy Stewart classic: “I love It’s a Wonderful Life, and I was trying to think of a brand that would give me an opportunity to create something that had that everlasting charm and was a Christmas comedy.” It dawned on the filmmaker that the biggest holiday brand he could think of was the Wham! song “Last Christmas.” “It is played on repeat absolutely every year,” Livingstone says, “in every store—on every radio station—again and again. I thought it would be marvelous to turn that into a movie.”
In turn, the producer would bring the premise to the legendary songwriter and performer Michael, who was interested in the project…on the proviso that multihyphenate Emma Thompson would become involved in its development and execution.
“I’d worked with Emma before on Nanny McPhee and on Love Actually, so I sent her a note,” Livingstone says. “We had a meeting and Emma put together a few ideas, and off she went to meet with George. I was incredibly excited when I thought of them together: two British icons, both absolutely top of their game in terms of acting talent and musical talent. That meeting was a success and marked the start of the process.”
Thompson’s discussions with George (page 5)
Early on, during Thompson’s conversations with Michael, they discussed what she was considering and where she hoped to go with his classic music as inspiration. “I went and talked to George about it, and I had a wonderful afternoon with him; this was at least two years before he died,” Thompson says. “He was a very kind man who loved the idea of the story…and elements of it that were socially conscious because he was always very involved in that. I loved him, and I thought I’d love to work with him and be part of this.”
After George’s death (pages 5-6)
During the development of the screenplay, on Christmas Day 2016, Michael tragically died. Not only was the world devastated to lose such an epic voice, but the creative team developing Last Christmas also wondered if the premise was meant to ever come to fruition. “George knew the outline for the story, but he never had the opportunity to read the script,” Livingstone says. “It felt like we had something that was quite magical, but we had nowhere to go with it—until one day Greg, Emma’s other half, bumped into David Austin, George’s friend and manager. David reignited the project. We set up a meeting with Emma, and he played us some new music from George that no one had ever heard. It was incredibly exciting; it gave us all impetus. We had a great script, and it was something that honored him.”
Thompson received this moment as a chance to tell the ideal Christmas tale, and she felt that they had a guardian angel looking out. “When George died, and we had a lot of death in our family as well, we were all at our wits’ end,” Thompson says. “We did another draft, and then one day in June 2018, David came over and said, ‘I’ve just heard from George’s manager and boyhood friend, Dave Austin, who would love to talk about this project because it was so important to George.’” The filmmaker found Austin to be the passionate keeper of the artist’s legacy. “Dave came over and played us some wonderful new songs George wrote,” Thompson says, “and it was very exciting.”
On the power of George Michael’s music (page 9)
For the director, what adds to the magic of this world capital are the timeless sounds of George Michael. “The power of George’s music is breathtaking,” Feig says. “His songs are so well written and arranged that we can take them, rearrange and give them a secondary life. On top of that, we have an unreleased song that nobody has ever heard; this movie is just as much a love letter to George as it is to London. It is exciting for fans because they will get to re-experience his music in this new way. I’m also excited for people like myself who are aware of George but didn’t fully appreciate how amazingly talented he was.”
On Thompson and George Michael’s work with the homeless (page 21)
Both Thompson and George Michael spent a great deal of time working with the homeless over the years, and the singer made attention to those in need his life’s work. “Something like one in 50 people in London are homeless now,” Thompson says. “It’s a vital part of our national discussion, and it’s shameful. We’re a rich country, and there’s no reason for anyone to be homeless.” Many of the characters in this film are drawn from those men and women met at a mission in White Chapel.
On the soundtrack (page 22)
Empirically, “Last Christmas” is an absolute benchmark holiday song. “Nobody can take away from the fact that George was somebody with enormous integrity and immense talent,” producer David Livingstone says. “The opportunity to even get somewhere near any of his work, let alone songs nobody’s heard before—let alone Wham!’s Christmas classic—is such an opportunity. We’ve taken seriously the responsibility of dealing with this great artist’s work.” The George Michael and Wham! songs that populate the romantic comedy—and punctuate key scenes—include “Last Christmas,” “Too Funky,” “Fantasy,” “Praying for Time,” “Faith,” “Waiting for That Day,” “Heal the Pain,” “One More Try,” “Fastlove,” “Everything She Wants,” “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” “Move On,” “Freedom! ’90” and “Praying for Time” (MTV Unplugged).
On the musical score vis-a-vis Michael’s music (page 24)
Paul’s process,” Shapiro says. “We try to find the tone and the theme as close as possible to the beginning of his postproduction. That allows me to write music that lives in the film before there is a temp score. That way, the musical language never consists of anything other than what will be the final score. On Last Christmas, there never was any temp music. It was always my original demo.”
While production music supervisor Becky Bentham and David Austin worked with Feig and Thompson to curate songs from George Michael’s songbook that would drive the narrative, the composer knew it was vital to have the film themes stand on their own. “The fundamental question was how to handle the score in relation to George Michael’s music,” Shapiro says. “This was a big challenge to tackle. It was obvious that those songs would be the musical-focal point of the film, but at the same time, this isn’t a jukebox musical. The movie had to have a score that supports the songs but also one that stands on its own. Finding that balance was the real trick.”
Shapiro felt it quite freeing to let the story direct his artistic choices and, as he has his entire career, he went with gut instinct. “The songs stand on their own, and my job wasn’t to measure up to those songs,” Shapiro says. “’What was daunting was creating a tapestry that is in-balance. If it felt like the song palette and the score palette were doing something completely different from one another, that wouldn’t be pleasing. But at the same time, you can’t go in the completely opposite direction and have every queue based on a George Michael theme. That would’ve felt like overkill.”
It was crucial to director and composer that they not downplay serious elements of Last Christmas by making the film feel as if it were simply a musical comedy. “It had to be finely crafted so that the score feels like it’s in a similar language of the songs and living in that world—hinting at the themes from the George Michael songs while having its own life,” Shapiro says. “That was the daunting challenge,” he pauses, “and what I spent my many insomnia hours thinking about.”
George Michael’s songs in the Last Christmas Soundtrack Album
“HEAL THE PAIN”
Written & Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“LAST CHRISTMAS”
Written by George Michael
Performed by Wham!
“LAST CHRISTMAS”
Written by George Michael
Performed by Little Voices
Courtesy of Red Sauce Records
“TOO FUNKY”
Written & Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“FANTASY”
Written & Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“MOVE ON”
Written & Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of G.K. Panayiotou
Under Exclusive License to Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU GO-GO”
Written by George Michael
Performed by Wham!
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“FASTLOVE, PT. 1”
Written by George Michael, Theresa McFaddin, Patrice Rushen, Fred Washington
Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of G.K. Panayiotou
Under exclusive license to Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“EVERYTHING SHE WANTS”
Written by George Michael
Performed by Wham!
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“LAST CHRISTMAS (TWISTER TECHNO REMIX EDIT)”
Written by George Michael
Performed by X-mas Allstars Feat. Fab
Courtesy of World2Media
“PRAYING FOR TIME”
Written & Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“WAITING FOR THAT DAY”
Written by George Michael, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards
Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“FAITH”
Written & Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“ONE MORE TRY”
Written & Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“FREEDOM! ’90”
Written & Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment U.K. Limited
“PRAYING FOR TIME (LIVE)” from MTV Unplugged
Written & Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Viacom Media Networks, a Division of Viacom International Inc.
“THIS IS HOW (WE WANT YOU TO GET HIGH)”
Written by George Michael, James Philip Jackman
Performed by George Michael
Courtesy of Virgin EMI Records
Under license from Universal Music Operations Ltd.
A great read can’t wait to watch the movie