The trailer for Sean Anders’ (Daddy’s Home) new holiday musical comedy jumps right out in front of the fact that it’s yet another adaptation of A Christmas Carol. The set up is as old as time (read: 1843), and it’s been made and copied and twisted so many times that even the cranky main character of Spirited gets what’s going on.
Yet there’s a nice little twist here. Or two. First, the whole haunting thing is more of a tradition than a miserly one-off. Second, the ghosts don’t simply exit stage left through a poster bed curtain.
Here’s the official synopsis from Apple TV+:
“Each Christmas Eve, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Will Ferrell) selects one dark soul to be reformed by a visit from three spirits. But this season, he picked the wrong Scrooge. Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds) turns the tables on his ghostly host until Present finds himself reexamining his own past, present and future. For the first time, A Christmas Carol is told from the perspective of the ghosts in this hilarious musical twist on the classic Dickens tale.”
It also looks like the Ghost of Christmas Present has a little earthly tingle for Octavia Spencer’s character.
Add in some modern sarcasm and musical numbers from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul of La La Land fame, and there’s hope that this will be a worthy addition to the Dickens tradition.