It’s nearly Christmastime, so you can expect the dozens, no, it’s got to be hundreds of adaptations of Charles Dickens’ immortal classic A Christmas Carol to fill the airwaves once again. The iconic yuletide story never falls out of popularity with television networks and filmmakers and now we’ve learned that a new version is in the works, from a couple of unlikely sources.
The Wrap is reporting that Tom Hardy and legendary director Ridley Scott are teaming up to bring Ebeneezer Scrooge back to curmudgeonly life in a fresh adaptation, due to arrive on the BBC in Christmas 2019. The twist is, though, that the pair haven’t signed on to act in and direct the piece. Instead, Hardy and Scott are on hand to produce the adaptation via their production companies – Hardy Son & Baker and Scott Free, respectively.
Their partnership on this continues from their work together on two other successful series, Taboo and Peaky Blinders, both of which Hardy acted in. This suggests that the Dunkirk star may also cast himself in the lead role as the miserable miser. If that’s the case, Hardy’s Scrooge will be unlike any we’ve seen before, which should help to differentiate this version from the masses of others.
Set to adapt Dickens’ work is Stephen Knight, who also wrote the previously mentioned Taboo and Peaky Blinders. The Wrap says that the BBC are looking for Knight to adapt several other Dickens novels for them, as well, and they’re all expected to arrive throughout 2019.
In a statement released earlier today, Tom Hardy had this to say about the project:
“It’s extremely exciting to have the opportunity to team up with Ridley Scott, Steven Knight and our partners at the BBC with this rare and wonderful opportunity to revisit and interpret Dickens’ classic works. ‘A Christmas Carol’ is a fabulous magical piece of theatre and an embarrassment of riches for our creative team – from character all the way through to design. Here’s to having a lot of intricate and wonderful fun. We feel very lucky.”
The last major adaptation of A Christmas Carol was the 2009 CGI movie from director Robert Zemeckis and starring Jim Carrey in the lead role (not to mention as all the ghosts). The film did well at the box office, too, which just goes to prove that Scrooge is as popular as ever. Hopefully Hardy and Scott’s version will be met with the same success.