Ed Sheeran on His New Song for ‘That Christmas,’ and His Next Album: ‘I’m Getting Back into Big Pop’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Love Actually” director Richard Curtis and songwriter and musician Ed Sheeran go way back: Sheeran’s first girlfriend even babysat Curtis’ children.

Since then, they’ve collaborated on several projects, including Comic Relief and the Danny Boyle-helmed 2017 film “Yesterday,” in which which Sheeran stars and Curtis co-wrote.

So when Curtis was conceiving his TV special “That Christmas,” he showed Sheeran some early storyboards, and the original conversation was that it would be a musical. “He asked if I wanted to write the music for it, and I said, ‘Cool,’” Sheeran says from his home in London. “There was one scene, and I wrote a chorus for it, but didn’t hear anything back.’” Two years later, Curtis asked Sheeran to finish the song “Under the Tree” and updated him on the story. “That Christmas” which is now streaming on Netflix, would no longer be an animated musical, but rather an animated feature based on Curtis’ trilogy of children’s books.

Set in the fictional British town of Wellington-on-Sea, it follows a series of entwined tales about family and friends, love, loneliness and Santa Claus making a big mistake.