Disney is planning a new movie musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Christmas Carol, from director Bill Condon. Condon previously directed the 2017 live action Beauty and the Beast, which was a massive box office success. Other credits of his include the last two Twilight films and Dreamgirls. On November 15, his latest film The Good Liar, starring Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen, will hit theaters.
A Christmas Carol is a popular choice for Hollywood adaptations, with Disney’s new project being one of many currently in development. There’s a miniseries planned for FX with Guy Pearce, and a musical set for Apple with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell. Disney itself has already tackled A Christmas Carol several times, the most recent being the motion-capture feature directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jim Carrey in 2009. The much beloved Christmas tale follows the grumpy miser Ebenezer Scrooge as he learns the real meaning of Christmas and to let compassion and kindness into his heart with the help of three spirits.
EW reports that Condon will also be the credited screenwriter, and has already written the script. Additionally, this version will be a musical, and Stephen Schwartz, the man responsible for the hit Broadway musical Wicked‘s score, will write the songs. This new adaptation is said to follow Jacob Marley as opposed to Scrooge, and is tentatively titled Marley. In the novel, Marley is Scrooge’s late business partner who appears as a ghost to warn Scrooge of what’s to come. It’s unclear whether Disney’s new film will take place during the events of A Christmas Carol or before.
No release window has been set, but it’s likely that Marley will not be seen for a few years. There have not been any casting announcements either. This project fits among Disney’s current strategy to release remakes of beloved properties. It even matches last year’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms in that it’s a new take on a popular Christmas story. The Nutcracker was a critical and financial miss, and Disney undoubtedly hopes Marley’s prospects will be jollier.
On one hand, it can be irritating to see Disney, the most successful studio in Hollywood right now, opt to remake something as opposed to create something new. That’s one of the main criticisms leveled at Disney’s live-action trend, and this news isn’t bound to change that. On the other, A Christmas Carol is one of the most well-known stories of all time, and will probably always be remade as long as studios are making films. At the very least, Disney looks to be offering a different viewpoint on the story, which would give it a needed update. This version of A Christmas Carol could become a classic for a whole new generation, or it could bring nothing new to the tale. Hopefully it’ll be the former instead of the latter.
