“Genie” Writer Richard Curtis Asked Tom Cruise for Permission Before Including Joke in Movie (Exclusive)

"After all these years, I've at last made a Tom Cruise movie," Curtis jokes to PEOPLE of 'Genie,' now streaming on Peacock

Richard Curtis might not have had Tom Cruise on the set of Genie in person, but he was there in spirit.

In the new holiday comedy from the Love Actually writer, Melissa McCarthy's titular character Flora develops a crush on the action star, 61, after seeing him in a Mission: Impossible flick, her first-ever movie-theater experience. She soon peppers her bedroom wall with posters of Cruise, dreams about a potential life with him and even gets a sweatshirt with the actor's face on it as a Christmas present from her new friend Bernard (Paapa Essiedu).

"We definitely had to ask him [for permission]," Curtis, 67, tells PEOPLE of including Cruise in the film. "I mean, we asked him through his people. I'm lucky enough to know Tom a bit. He's always been very sweet to me. And we worked on a film for a while, which didn't happen."

Jokes Curtis of the former PEOPLE Sexiest Man Alive's response, "I don't know whether it's a favor to me and Melissa or whether someone in the mail room said, 'This sounds okay.' But it means that after all these years, I've at last made a Tom Cruise movie."

"There's a 3-second clip of Mission: Impossible. So I'm so thrilled that bit's in," he adds.

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Related: Tom Cruise's Wildest Stunts in His Movies, from 'Top Gun: Maverick' to 'Mission: Impossible'

In Genie, McCarthy's Flora befriends the down-on-his-luck Bernard, who summoned her. The story switches between moments of off-the-wall humor and more serious, heartfelt messages about love, friendship and the holiday season.

Curtis says that McCarthy, 53, came up with some of the jokes in the movie herself — like one line when she's asked about whether she likes cats and she answers, "I love them, they're delicious."

"When Melissa would think of a new funny joke, then she would do it, and that'd be great. But then, of course, you've gotta do it four more times. You've got to make sure you got it right. You've got to make sure you get it at the right speed from the right angle," he explains with a laugh. "So it's always a mixture between kind of mischief and very conscientious behavior on movies."

"In my movies, you want it to be emotionally true at the same time as being silly. So [Melissa] went between being impish and just being a really proper, serious actor," says Curtis, who's also known for romantic-comedy classics like Love Actually, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary.

Related: Richard Curtis on How Melissa McCarthy's Genie Casting Mirrors Julia Roberts' for Notting Hill (Exclusive)

Directed by Sam Boyd, Genie also reunites Curtis with Alan Cumming, who originally starred as the title character (now played by Essiedu, 33) in Curtis' 1991 TV movie Bernard and the Genie.

But Cumming now stars as Bernard's greedy boss — a role originally played by Rowan Atkinson in Bernard and the Genie, which the new movie is based on.

Curtis tells PEOPLE that he has stayed friends over the years with the "sweet and interesting" Cumming, whom he asked to join the cast of Genie "as a favor."

"We just thought if Bernard's the sweetest guy in the world, and we got in touch with him and said, 'Would you like to now play the nastiest guy in the world?' [whether he would]," the filmmaker says. "And he's played a few scoundrels in his time."

"So it was lovely seeing Alan again. He's aged well, I think," Curtis quips.

Genie is now streaming on Peacock.

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