We’ve had CGI A Christmas Carol. We’ve had Bill Murray A Christmas Carol. We’ve had The Muppet Christmas Carol. Hell, we’ve even had terribly animated Nic Cage A Christmas Carol. But just when you thought Hollywood had finally run out of ways to adapt Charles Dickens’ festive chiller, 2025 has arrived with the promise of two fresh takes from major horror filmmakers for Christmases Yet To Come. Back in June we learned that Robert Eggers is preparing A Christmas Carol with Willem Dafoe at Warner Bros., and now Deadline is reporting that MaXXXine director Ti West will direct Johnny Depp and Andrea Riseborough in Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol.
Penned by Tales From The Loop scribe Nathaniel Halpern, Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol is set to lean into the phantasmagorical if the very brief, very familiar description provided to Deadline is anything to go by. “This version,” it reads, “a thrilling ghost story set in Dickens’ London, follows one man’s supernatural journey to face his past, present, and future and fight for a second chance.” Well, uh, yeah — that’s A Christmas Carol alright. Still, ‘thrilling’ is rarely a word used to describe past adaptations of Dickens’ classic morality tale, and when it comes to the supernatural, West — who’s dabbled in the unearthly before to great effect with the likes of The House Of The Devil, The Innkeepers, and The Roost — is never one to go in lightly, which bodes well for an adaptation with some bite to it.
It’s unconfirmed as of yet who Depp — no stranger to playing a literary icon or two having previously taken on Alice In Wonderland‘s Mad Hatter, Sleepy Hollow‘s Ichabod Crane, and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory‘s Willy Wonka — and Riseborough will be playing in West’s movie, though we’d wager that if Depp’s starring then it probably won’t be as Tiny Tim. We won’t have to wait too long to find out for sure though, because Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol has already set a release date just in time for next year’s festivities: 13 November, 2026. Here’s hoping this one won’t be a Humbug, eh?
