"This Christmas," destined to become a yuletide classic, opened Nov. 21. The ensemble cast features Delroy Lindo ("The Cider House Rules"), Idris Elba ("The Wire"), Loretta Devine ("Grey's Anatomy"), Chris Brown ("Stomp the Yard"), Keith Robinson ("Dreamgirl"), Laz Alonso ("Stomp the Yard"), Columbus Short ("Stomp The Yard"), Sharon Leal ("Tyler Perry's;™ Why Did I Get Married"), Lauren London ("ATL"), Mekhi Phifer ("ER") and Regina King ("Ray"). Preston A. Whitmore II ("The Walking Dead," "Crossover") wrote and directed the film and also produced along with Will Packer. Executive producers are Mekhi Phifer, Ronnie Warner, Paddy Cullen, Damon Lee and Delroy Lindo.

For the first time in four years, the entire Whitfield clan is assembled for Christmas at the L.A. home of the family matriarch, Shirley "Ma' Dere" Whitfield (Loretta Devine). Ma' Dere's three sons and three daughters have come from all over the country for an emotional reunion that promises to be as dramatic, contentious and hilarious as it is heartwarming. Oldest daughter Lisa (Regina King), also known as Sister, is trying to convince the rest of the family to sell the dry cleaning business their mother has run for years so her overly-ambitious husband Malcolm (Laz Alonso) will have the capital he needs to close an important business deal. Her sister Kelli (Sharon Leal), a high-powered business woman, is dead set against doing anything Malcolm wants.

Youngest daughter Mel (Lauren London) is home from college and primarily interested in finding a private place to canoodle with her latest beau, Devean (Keith Robinson). Ma' Dere's son Claude (Columbus Short), an active duty Marine, arrives with some unexpected news while his younger brother Baby (Chris Brown) has a surprise of his own for the family. When estranged eldest son Quentin (Idris Elba), a jazz musician, makes a surprise appearance, he neglects to tell the family he's on the run from his gambling debts.

Despite her extensive preparations, Ma' Dere's plans for a cozy holiday soon begin to evaporate. When the siblings head out to an L.A. nightclub for some fun, an off color remark by another patron sparks a fight and Claude ends up in jail. Later, Kelli spends the night with Gerald (Mekhi Phifer), a handsome fireman she meets at the club, Malcolm flies to New York on a last-minute "business trip" and a pair of thugs comes looking for Quentin with mayhem on their minds. Meanwhile, Ma' Dere is harboring some secrets of her own, such as the full extent of her relationship with longtime boyfriend Joseph Black (Delroy Lindo).

With their holiday seemingly on a collision course with disaster, it will take all the humor, heart and love the Whitfields can muster to survive 'This Christmas.'

Preston Whitmore, Writer/Director, "This Christmas"
I had a chance to sit down and chat with Preston Whitmore and Will Packer, both of whom I've known for years. Preston has written, directed or produced a half-dozen feature films and worked on a successful television series. Will is founder and chairman of Rainforest Films, an Atlanta based film production and distribution company he co-founded with partner Rob Hardy. In 2001 he brokered a profitable partnership with Sony Pictures to produce and distribute urban films.

In this interview, Preston and Will talk about
"This Christmas" ...

What was the inspiration for this film?
Preston: My mother's name is Shirley Ann Whitmore. Loretta Divine played the character of Shirley Ann Whitmore. My mother passed away a few years ago. I'd go to the set and see my mother for the period of time I did the picture. My family inspired all the characters in this film. I'm actually three people in the movie. Particularly the instance with Idris Elba as Quentin. My mother and father were divorced at a very young age in my life and my mother dated a man by the name of Joe Black. I gave that man hell. Not that he was an incredibly bad guy. He was an incredibly good guy, but at that young age, I didn't recognize it -- you know, who this person who was putting these groceries that would miraculously appear in the fridge. I would wake up in the morning and have extra cereal. I don't know but cereal is a good point in a black family, got to have cereal. So I'm paying homage to him and respecting that relationship. Regina King represents my older sister Kimberly Whitmore, Columbus Short, absent the wife was in the section of my life in the Marine Corps, that's the reason he's a marine. Will Packer was inspiration to play the DJ. I've never known so much music in my life until I met him. Different sections in my life inspired all these things. The baby character is me, I do not sing at all, but I was an avid photographer at 16 and still continue to shoot today. I didn't bring my camera but I will grace you guys with a photo shoot later. So that's were the inspiration came from. One of the things I didn't set out to write when I wrote the movie was a black movie. I happen to be African American, but I wanted to write a movie about a great family that happens to be African American. Because I am African American you get all those things like a soul train line, I'm sure you guys enjoy that and ya'll do that every year. So that's were the inspiration came from.

Was there any concern about reflecting too closely to your personal experience. These family members of yours, was it ever a concern that it will be too close to the reality?
Preston: How can you be to close to reality? No I don't give a damn about what they think.

"This Christmas" producer Will Packer
Will: He really does because I asked. I was like what about when they see this movie.

Preston: Well the thing is, I like for it to be close because like I said my mother died a couple of years ago and of the discerning things is I think its my finest picture to date and it certainly represents my family and its unfortunate she's not able to see it. One of the greatest things about making this movie was the fact that I was able to go to the set everyday and spend time with my family for Christmas, and that was a joy. I became really emotional every time I hear Joe Black played by Delroy Lindo say Shirley Ann Whitfield, which is Shirley Ann Whitmore my mother. I knew very early on that I wanted Loretta to play this role. We had a table reading about a year before we did the picture. There were other women suggested but Loretta embodied the spirit of my mother and she made going to work everyday a pure joy. That attitude was infectious throughout the whole cast, everyone had fun making this movie. I never worked with a better group of people. There was one single vision from the very beginning that we set out when we were making this movie, which was to make an elegant picture. The president of the studio happens to be a 38-year-old black woman; she really understood the concept of making this movie and that became a single vision throughout. So it wasn't like it wasn't any sort of traditional set up it was all we going to tell a story of this family, and we all had this one straight vision. If there were any potholes in the road, Will was there to sort of pave it over. For instance we were really going to shoot in a practical location in Windsor Park, which is now a very African American area in Los Angeles, but the house was too small, so Will made sure we got a sound stage. Don Snyder came in, which worked with me on "Crossover," my previous movie, and made this incredible house that I saw in my mind. It was very elegant and I think it represented the Whitfield's.

Will: To your point of the characters and the realism, I think that this family feels really authentic because they are very, very close. Not so much the actual dynamics but what the characters do and the secrets that they have are drawn from those experiences but the fact of who those characters are. That's what was so real and so then it was easy for Preston to translate his vision to us and especially to his actors because he intimately knew Joe Black, Shirley Ann Whitmore, and Quinton Whitfield, that's what gave us a foundation to operate from. There are moments and there are beats in the film where they are just kind of sitting around and they are having real authentic conversation and messing with each and going back and forth. A lot of that was because they were very aware of who those characters are because they were so close to reality.

Can you talk a little bit about the casting process, because it is a terrific cast.
Preston: Well the casting process was a collaborative process on behalf of the studio and the producers. Will had worked with Chris Brown on "Stomp The Yard," so the studio was very enthusiastic about him from the beginning. I had worked with Mekhi Phifer and we were trying to find something to do together, so the first thing I did knowing his schedule with ER was “I wrote this character Gerald which would be great for you do you want to come on board?” And he was like “yeah, that's really cool my man but see you know I produce to”. So he wanted to produce and I didn't have a problem with it, I called so and so and I was like I really want Mekhi in this picture but he would like to produce and the studio said no problem. So there was always this singular vision going on and Mekhi came on and he gave Delroy a call. Delroy said he'd come on down. Will and me went in a van one night and we kidnapped Laz, Regina, and Sharon. Actually Sharon had worked on a picture just prior to this with Will.

Will: Yeah I just worked with her on a DVD, a smaller project and it was before "Dreamgirls" came. She was really great; she just came in and rocked it. I said Preston, we should think about her because I just worked with her and saying Chris and I just worked with him and I knew that he is the most professional, humble kid that you will see, so it was really cool to have him back again and even in an expanded performance. The thing about the cast is that everyone was drawn by the material, which was the thing. We spent a lot of money on dinners. We took a lot of people out and sat them down and said listen let us tell you what we want to do with this. Preston would go out and express his vision and they bought into it. But we really went out alone with the studio and one by one recruited each one. It wasn't like we just sent it out and said let's see that comes, no we went after each one of these people individually. With a film like this especially a smaller film of this size usually you would just have just a Regina or just a Delroy but to have all of them and Mekhi and Loretta it was great and it takes work to pull that together. We really went out, rolled up our sleeves and said hey buy into this vision.

Preston: One of the things I can say it that this is the greatest cast I ever worked with. In addition to that I have to send a shout out to Chris Brown. There are a lot of people out there that are in the music profession that can't necessarily make that transition. When you start to make a professionally film people are late. Chris Brown was not late one day. One of the greatest things about this guy is that he is an international phenom, he could bring an entourage to the set, he'd show up on time everyday. Literally as a 17 year old he said here's my life, I'm putting it in your hands, tell me what to do. And I think he is remarkable as a result of his mom, Desmond, and we're going to see him do great things from here on out.

As a producer when you go into the studio, how challenging is it to get the studio executives to greenlight a black family drama?
Will: It's good that we are coming on the heels of like a “Why Did I Get Married?,” which was very successful as was something that Preston and I have talked about. And I've talked about my contemporaries and I think the state of black films is changing. We are having the opportunity of putting out imagery that before wasn't perceived as marketable. This is a film with a lot of adult African Americans and it's a family film. Its set around a holiday and you just can't point to three of four examples of films that have worked and that is kind of how Hollywood works. With this film we were very fortunate that we had a studio who really bought into the vision. The studio said “this is an important film to make” and originally it was set around a family reunion, then Tyler Perry did “Madea's Family Reunion” so we were like well okay that's been done, but the good thing is that this family structure was so dynamic and solid, you could place it against multiple backdrops. I was really enthused about doing it as a Christmas film because I wanted it to be this iconic, "It's a Wonderful Life" that you could watch every Christmas.

You mentioned in the production notes, the uniqueness of the film, when you think of most Christmas movies they are set in snowcap, snow areas. This really took the L.A. California role of Christmas.
Preston: I've been living here since 1985 and you're always thinking, “How can I make something different”. Having said that I wanted to show California Christmas and I wanted to shoot in Los Angeles but what was great about it is and what was also a challenge is how do you portray this? Will and me came up with some really unique ideas and he pulled off a really serious stunt because we had a difficulty finding Christmas decorations in Los Angeles. Three days before production Will calls me and says “ I've got The Grove”. He gets Loretta on the phone, we go over there and we shoot at The Grove. The people at The Grove is assholes like you wouldn't believe.

Will: Not true, we love The Grove. We love you, thank you.
Preston: The problem as a filmmaker you have to say exactly where you're going to shoot. You just can't sort of gamble through it. So I had to figure out exactly where I was going to shoot everything and then we had to hustle Loretta [Devine] down there and Will made signs that you said 'if you walk through your going to be on film.' And Alexander captured every moment of it and we got Loretta crossing behind the little thing with the ginger bread house and the great little part when you go over the bridge and the fountain shot up at the same time. I knew it was going to be a great movie because the song they played to the fountain was “This Christmas.”

What's the rating of this?
Preston: PG-13--no 5 year olds of course and the teens will of course love Chris. But the family will be able to identify with this. I set out to do a family film because I've done a lot of edgy movies and I have a 10 year old daughter now. So you sort of sit back and say as a father, I want to make a movie that my daughter will be able to see, so needless to say, most of my films will be family themes from here on out.

Where does the title of the film come from?
Preston: While writing the script for "This Christmas" I thought a lot about my fondest Christmas memories. Donny Hathaway's song, 'This Christmas,' came right to my mind. And I said, that's what I'm going to call this movie. I don't care where you are or what you're doing, when you hear the chorus, it brings back memories. There's nobody that hasn't heard this song. And the studio actually owned it and was accommodating about putting it in the movie.

Both Preston and Will hope the film will resonate with all audiences. Preston says his goal while writing this script was to make sure that every character had his or her own story arc. "There's something for everyone in this picture. We have drama. We have action—a lot of which revolves around Idris Elba's character, Quentin, the oldest son. We also have comedy, which revolves around the relationships between the sisters, as well as their relationships with men outside the family."

"It's a universal story," adds Will. "There's nothing uniquely African-American about it. It's a story about a mother who raises six kids who all leave the nest and go very different ways but come back together as a family. At the end of the day it's through their hope and faith in the strength of the family that they persevere through some real challenges."

Sony's "This Christmas" opens Wednesday, November 21.