A Christmas Carol gets gritty with the upcoming film The Guns of Christmas Past, and Mortal Kombat: Legacy director Kevin Tancharoen has been chosen to bring the project to life.

The inventively dark twist on the classic Dickens tale was penned by Andrew Hilton. It focuses on a retired hit man who returns home to Chicago on Christmas Eve to exact his bloody revenge upon those who murdered his loved ones, yet in the process he must draw arms against foes from his past, present, and future.

Tancharoen is mostly noted for his work on the Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series, which breathed new life into the franchise, as well as for walking away from the opportunity to direct New Line’s upcoming Mortal Kombat film after being attached to the project for three years. Voltage Pictures is behind The Guns of Christmas Past, with the company’s Zev Foreman and Nicholas Chartier serving as producers. Foreman and Chartier also worked together as executive producers on last year’s Dallas Buyers Club. 

So far no casting information has been released. It would be reasonable to expect a possible Christmas-time release date. Seemingly in the vein of other dark Christmas movies like Black Christmas, this film could be an exciting divergence from the traditional lineup of holiday cheer flicks that are ordinarily seen at the box office during that season. In any event, this wintry event is sure to pack plenty of heat.