As has been pointed out when we covered some casting news both in early July and late July, A Christmas Carol really doesn’t need another remake. That hasn’t deterred creepy motion-capture auteur Robert Zemeckis (it’s the motion capture that is creepy, not Bobby Z), who is planning one of those Polar Exrpress/Beouwolf retellings of the Charles Dickens classic, with some live action thrown in.
Variety reports that Cary Elwes will join confirmed participants like Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, and Bob Hoskins in bringing that miserly bastard Ebenezer Scrooge to life, again. Carrey will play Scrooge, the three ghosts, and the second street urchin from the right while Hoskins will portray Fezziwig. Oldman will portray multiple roles and so will Elwes. He’d make a good Nephew Fred.
If you don’t know who Fezziwig, Nephew Fred and some of these other characters are, you’re in luck. You can choose from no less than 27 other full length versions. They come in all shapes and sizes including animated, musical, Flinstones, Mr. Magoo, the Muppets, and one with Bill Murray frenching an extra. That’s not counting the hundreds of television shows that have used the basic plot for one of their Christmas episodes. So toss this one with Jim, Bob, Gary, and Cary on the pile and have a Merry Christmas…in 2009.
