Written by: Samuel K. Sloan (FarPoint Media Executive News Director)
Yes, yes, I know, it’s a great tale and one that can speak to every generation — but please! Enough already!
We have seen just about every incarnation, skew and take on the famous Charles Dickens tale of “A Christmas Carol” imaginable. If you take in to account both the live-action and animated versions of the story there have been 39 tellings of this famous Dickens moral fable put on celluloid. Some have been landmark in their telling such as the 1951 black and white version starring Alastair Sim as the gruff and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. Sim set the standard for all those that followed until 1988, when Bill Murray took the role, truly brought it into the 20th Century and created a new kind of Scrooge (in “Scrooged”) that still stands up 20 years later.
Now “Scary Movie 4″ director David Zucker will turn the classic Dickens story on its ear with a satire in his usual stylings with “An American Carol,” starring one of the masters of deadpan satiric humor, Kelsey Grammer.
Kelsey Grammer will reprise the role of Ebenezer Scrooge (he did the role of Scrooge for a dramatic TV Hallmark special) for the indie film and while I am beginning to grow weary of seeing this story told over and over again, I could be persuaded to check this one out. However, this is one I will wait for on DVD. Don’t think I want to sit in a theater full of cold-infested children wiping their runny noses on the arm of my seat, just to see this flick. If I’m going to risk getting a virus that could change my life forever it will have to be for a film greater than this.
Shooting for “An American Carol” begins on February 28. The release date is to be announced.
I don't know the full details but it sounds like they will be doing a remake of the movie An American Christmas Carol that starred Henry Winkler. I actually liked that version very much. It had it's own charm, about an orphaned by taken in by a man who made furniture by hand. That boy grew up to change how the funiture business was done, including creating the means for people to by furniture and other household goods like a wood burning stove on CREDIT. He became miserly like Scrooge when he focused more on business than on the needs of others. In the end, he also takes a young boy under his wing from the orphanage and goes back to his roots, teaching the boy how to carve wood into whatever he can imagine it to be.
I have not seen that particular "Christmas Carol" style show on TV for years. I would certainly love to see it. A Christmas Carol is a classic story. It is much like Romeo and Juliet in it's quality, which has been done in remakes as well. If someone can bring the classic tale to life in a new way without boring audiences, but bring something new to it, I would certainly watch it, because I love the story, including the Muppet Version of this story, which you forgot to mention. The story has a timeless quality, and I think that is why it keeps being redone.
(@
Alisa
It's like our regional theatre here in town. For 20+ years they performed A Christmas Carol during the holidays. For the first time, last year they FINALLY realized it was no longer a tradition, but obnoxious! They instead did a performance of Peter Pan that sold out all season long - people were ready to see something new and different during the holidays. I think that may be why we are seeing fewer and fewer Christmas themed movies and an increase in thriller/slasher Holiday flicks.
Someone should bankroll a Tim Burton version of "A Christmas Carol." I believe it would be amazing.