“Foxcatcher” director Bennett Miller has come on board a movie version of Charles Dickens’ iconic “A Christmas Carol,” set up at Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures.
Screenwriter and playwright Tom Stoppard is writing the script for the project, which will be set in the 19th Century. Ellison, Miller, Scott Rudin and Jennifer Fox are the producers.
Dickens’ story was published in 1843 and was instantly popular. It told of Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from a miser to a kind man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner of former partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.
The book begins, “Marley was dead, to begin with – there’s no doubt about that. He was as dead as a doornail.”
“A Christmas Carol” has been adapted into films numerous times, most recently in 2009’s “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn and Cary Elwes. That version grossed $325 million worldwide.
Annapurna produced “Foxcatcher” with Miller, who received a Best Director Oscar nomination.
Stoppard has won four Tonys for his plays along with a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for “Shakespeare in Love.” Annapurna has produced “Zero Dark Thirty,” “American Hustle,” “Her,” “Joy” and Richard Linklater’s upcoming “Everybody Wants Some.”
Miller is repped by CAA and Stoppard is repped by Paradigm. The news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
