Johnny Depp To Star As Ebenezer Scrooge In New Adaptation Of 'A Christmas Carol'

Johnny Depp will reportedly star in a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Deadline’s Justin Kroll reports Depp will star in a film titled Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol with Ti West set to direct the film. The script for the film was penned by Nathaniel Halpern.

Also attached to star in the project is Andrea Riseborough with Emma Watts producing.

Dickens’ A Christmas Carol follows Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly and cold-hearted London businessman, who despises Christmas and all forms of human kindness, famously dismissing it with his catchphrase “Bah! Humbug!” On Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns him of his fate in the afterlife unless he changes his ways. Marley announces that three spirits: the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come will visit Scrooge that night.

After being visited by all the Ghosts, Scrooge is terrified and repentant and awakens on Christmas morning transformed. He anonymously sends a prize turkey to the family of his employee Bob Cratchit, raises Bob’s salary, attends his nephew Fred’s dinner, and becomes a generous benefactor to Tiny Tim, embodying the spirit of Christmas for the rest of his life. The novella ends with the famous line: “God bless us, every one!”

There have been more than 300 adaptations across film, television, theater, animation, audio dramas, and more of the novella. Some of the best actors such as Michael Caine, Patrick Stewart, Jim Carrey, George C. Scott, and Alastair Sim have played Scrooge. There have also been versions with the Muppets as well as Mickey Mouse.

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