A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that Paramount Pictures has put a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol on the fast track, aiming for a theatrical release on November 13, 2026. Ti West, who recently directed the X, Pearl, and MaXXXine trilogy, will be directing Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol for Paramount, with Johnny Depp set to play Ebenezer Scrooge – and Deadline has broken the news that Ian McKellen of the X-Men and Lord of the Rings franchises and Tramell Tillman of Severance have joined Depp in the cast!
Also in the cast is Andrea Riseborough (Mandy), who, like Depp, was already involved before the project was announced.
West will be directing the film from a screenplay by Nathaniel Halpern. Deadline reminds us, the classic Charles Dickens story has seen its fair share of retellings over the years with its tale of an elderly miser visited by the ghost of his former business partner and the spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come. For his first major studio movie, West will be telling a thrilling ghost story set in Dickens’ London, following one man’s supernatural journey to face his past, present and future and fight for a second chance. Depp will be playing Ebenezer Scrooge. We don’t know who McKellen or Riseborough will be playing, but Deadline hears that Tillman’s role might be the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Emma Watts is producing the film, with Stephen Deuters, Jason Forman, Adam Bohling, and David Reid serving as executive producers.
It’s sort of surprising to see Paramount moving full steam ahead on Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol, because it was announced four months ago that Nosferatu director Robert Eggers will be writing and directing a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for Warner Bros., with Willem Dafoe on board to play Ebenezer Scrooge. But the fact that Eggers is busy with his werewolf movie Werwulf, which just started filming, allowed Paramount to leap-frog ahead of that project.
Are you interested in Ti West’s Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol? What do you think of Ian McKellen and Tramell Tillman joining Johnny Depp and Andrea Riseborough in the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
