Exclusive: Red-hot comic Nate Bargatze is in negotiations to star in Christmas in Paradise, a holiday family comedy from Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists’ Scott Stuber that’s in the early stages of development.

The film will have him playing a beloved small-town doctor (Bargatze) who finds himself with a unique bounty on his head just a week before Christmas, in a town where everything is not as it seems. It’s the second he’s signed on to in the last few months, on the heels of The Breadwinner, a TriStar comedy based on his and Dan Lagana’s original pitch, on which he’ll also serve as a producer.

Jeff Tomsic (Tag) is on board to direct from a script by Johnny Rosenthal (Bad Santa 2). UA’s Stuber and Nick Nesbitt will produce alongside Tom McNulty (The Spectacular Now) and Nathan Reimann (Mr. Woodcock), who developed and...