Gerard Butler fans are used to seeing the Scottish actor swoop in to save the day in action films like Olympus Has Fallen and Plane. But in his latest film, the 55-year-old actor takes on a somewhat different role – a singing, sometimes rapping, Santa Claus. Butler voices St Nick in The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland, an animated musical film adaption of the children's picture book by the same name.

The story is a mash-up between the poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and Alice in Wonderland and sees St Nick travelling to Wonderland to deliver a gift and finding himself in trouble with a Christmas-hating Queen of Hearts. "This is a little fun animated film, not the thing I would normally do or be expected to do, but I loved the opportunity to do different performances in different arenas," Butler told Reuters. "The whole family is going to be smiling and I want to be a part of those things."

The screenplay for the film, which features Bridgerton actor Simone Ashley as Alice and Game of Thrones alumni Emilia Clarke as the "Queen of Hearts", is entirely in rhyming couplets. The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland is released earlier this month.