Ready for round five? Pregnant Blake Lively teased husband Ryan Reynolds over his dorky dance moves in a flirty comment.
11.11.2022 - 01:55 / deadline.com
At this point it is almost impossible to count the number of remakes, ripoffs, variations, takeoffs and general thievery on the part of filmmakers riffing on Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. The latest imitation, Spirited, isn’t even the only new version to debut this season; I can count at least two others still waiting for liftoff as the yuletide tidings continue in 2022. But this one has some real firepower in terms of who is involved with the Apple TV+ original film, chief among them stars Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, who deliver a take most closely aligned with Bill Murray’s modern 1988 Scrooged, a homage even noted in the rat-a-tat snarky script here by John Morris and Sean Anders (Daddy’s Home), the latter who also directed.
Above all this is a lively musical with a whole slew of new tunes featuring some of the blessedly most cynical lyrics ever to be sung in a holiday confection like this. They all come from the primo songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman), who are no strangers to Xmas jingles having written the stage, and later TV musical adaptation, of A Christmas Story. Their signature style is fully on display here in a lot of big numbers backed with overly busy choreography by Chloe Arnold.
The premise here is that there has been a centuries-old operation run by no-nonsense Jacob Marley (Patrick Page) who enlists the ghostly trio of Ghosts of Christmases Past (Sunita Mani), Present (Ferrell), and Yet-To-Come (Loren Woods, with voice of Tracy Morgan) to “redeem” some very Scrooge-like souls each year — as we discover early on with their current target, a mean-spirited white suburban woman named Karen (you bet!).
The real action
Ready for round five? Pregnant Blake Lively teased husband Ryan Reynolds over his dorky dance moves in a flirty comment.
What was the initial nugget of an idea that inspired this movie?Well, John Morris, my writing and producing partner and I, we’ve always wanted to do a musical. We were having a conversation while we were working on another script, and we were just talking story, and we ended up talking about “A Christmas Carol” and about how an argument could be made that the ghosts are the protagonists of “A Christmas Carol” because they’re the ones with a mission and a job to do.
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There are more than the usual number of miracles to be observed with the latest version of A Christmas Carol to hit Broadway. The usual suspects are here, all the ghosts and spirits and flights over ye olde town and all the witnessing of things past, present and future. And there’s the miracle of one man – the great Jefferson Mays – breathing life into more than 50 characters and having us believe every single shift. And there’s the perhaps more – if only slightly more – quotidian miracle of a creative team – directors of lighting and sound and costumes and projections – at the tops of their games coming together to create gobsmacking theater magic, a blessing director Michael Arden’s Carol has in great bounty.
Is there any other movie hitting theaters in 2023 with more intrigue than Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie“? Sure, maybe a couple, but Gerwig’s follow-up to 2019’s “Little Women” ranks high with moviegoers because it’s such an audacious concept. A $100 million live-action film about Mattel‘s legendary toy with Margot Robbie as the titular fashion doll? Don’t laugh if Gerwig and co-screenwriter Noah Baumbach pull off a cultural sensation with this one, especially if Ryan Gosling brings the “ken-ergy,” as he promises to… READ MORE: ‘Barbie’: Saoirse Ronan Is “Gutted” She Won’t Be In Greta Gerwig’s Upcoming Film Due To Scheduling Conflicts And Robbie and Gosling’s “Barbie” co-star Will Ferrell feels like Gerwig may be onto something special with the upcoming film.
Even though we were right in the heart of Beverly Hills for last night’s American Cinematheque Awards tribute to Ryan Reynolds, you would be forgiven if you thought somehow you had been transported from the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom and landed in Canada. Judging from these proceedings Reynolds just may be the hottest import ever to come across the border.
Fudge! Nearly 40 years after A Christmas Story premiered in theaters, the hit holiday classic returned to the small screen for a long-awaited sequel —and it was filled with familiar faces.
Apple Original Films’ upcoming holiday film Spirited required the hands and talents of multiple creatives behind the scenes including Ian Eisendrath, who served as the musical comedy’s executive music producer. After his performance of an original song at Deadline’s Sound & Screen event, he revealed the elements of his job that kept him busy amid the singing talents of the cast that includes Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell and Octavia Spencer among others.
Will Ferrell is a multi-talented entertainer who loves to sing but too rarely gets the expansive opportunity for it on-screen. (We’ve heard the show-stopping and sincere performance of “Time to Say Goodbye” in “Step Brothers” or the hammy songs in Netflix’s “Eurovision” movie.) Thankfully, we now have the giddy song and dance of Sean Anders’ Christmas musical “Spirited,” which gives Ferrell’s tender tenor plenty of heartfelt scenes that allow him to be cartoonish but also musically sentimental.
Will Ferrell is a multi-talented entertainer who loves to sing but too rarely gets the expansive opportunity for it on-screen. (We’ve heard the show-stopping and sincere performance of “Time to Say Goodbye” in “Step Brothers” or the hammy songs in Netflix’s “Eurovision” movie.) Thankfully, we now have the giddy song and dance of Sean Anders’ Christmas musical “Spirited,” which gives Ferrell’s tender tenor plenty of heartfelt scenes that allow him to be cartoonish but also musically sentimental.
As a movie tie-in, it takes some beating. One Piece Film Red has been released as the manga comic strip on which it is based celebrates 25 years of existence and its 1000th published episode, every one of which has been authored by Eiichiro Oda, executive producer of the new film. Think about that. There are people who have grown up with One Piece which has also run as a weekly television series since 1999 — and there have been 14 films in the franchise before this one.
Hollywood heartthrobs! Celebrities are just like Us — they get crushes on famous folks and can become starstruck when they see certain stars.
Ryan Reynolds is set for a busy night in early December. NBC and E! will honor the actor, producer, and screenwriter with “The People’s Icon” award at the 2022 “People’s Choice Awards” for his contributions to film and television. He’s also nominated in the “Male Movie Star” and “Comedy Movie Star” categories for his role in his newest film The Adam Project.
Apple Original Films today unveiled the official trailer for its new holiday musical comedy Spirited, starring Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds and Octavia Spencer.