A Christmas Carol will be coming to cinemas and select theatre venues in the UK from the 4th December and Ireland from the 11th in a masterful remake of the ultimate Christmas ghost story by Charles Dickens, but with a difference. Combining film, theatre and animation it is as ambitious as its planned opening release date.
The story begins in a Victorian sitting room with grandma and the family assembled by the fireplace readying to be entertained. We magically enter the children’s play house into the Dickensian London setting and the time-honoured story of Ebenezer Scrooge, as the mean business proprietor, who is visited by the ghost of his business partner, Jacob Marley and the 3 spirits of Christmas: Christmas past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come.
Behind A Christmas Carol are the exciting creative British film director siblings Jacqui Morris and David Morris (McCullin, Attacking The Devil) who have put together an extraordinary film that brings together the different mediums of film, theatre and animation to effortlessly portray a dream like world, using music and dance, where the cast are played by dancers and are voiced by an array of star studded actors that includes Martin Freeman and Carey Mulligan. This is all perfectly executed without anyone moving their lips, which somehow works incredibly well adding to the ghostly drama, most notably by thespian Simon Russell Beale as the feared and fearful Scrooge, danced by Michael Nunn (Ballet Boyz).
The script so faithfully resembles the original Dickens novella that this is like your very own celebrity audiobook put to a musical ballet. And what a script, with its contemporary visual updating, that the prose more than equally matches. It is as fresh as the day it was written, so fresh you have to check the book for verification. The musical score takes you back to the past, bringing it to life with a contemporary twist and the choreographed dialogue elevates this with its incredible psychic medium. This is all played out in a theatre set that could be a studio, but all the while sucks you in to a believable ghostly reality, as we follow Scrooge as he is transported away by each of the Christmas spirits.
Film: A Christmas Carol
Director: Jacqui Morris and David Morris
Stars: Simon Russell Beale, Martin Freeman, Carey Mulligan, Daniel Kaluuya and Andy Serkis
Genre: Drama / Animation
Run time: 1hr 36min
Rated: PG
Rating: 5/5
Audiences will be able to catch A Christmas Carol in cinemas and selected theatre venues nationwide from December 4th. Listings are available here:
https://www.achristmascarol2020.film/?country=united-kingdom
Theatres wishing to explore screening A Christmas Carol as part of their festive programming can contact Executive Producer Clare Lee Davis via clare@frithstreetfilms.com
The Language of Film 