Spirited Trailer: Will Ferrell And Ryan Reynolds Update A Christmas Carol
Remakes, reboots, reimaginings. Hollywood is obsessed with the "re-ification" — yeah, I'm copyrighting that — of the industry, and whenever there's an opportunity to bring a franchise or original property back from the dead and spend a lot of unnecessary money on it, they do it. In that vein, Apple Original Films released the first teaser trailer for the upcoming holiday musical comedy, "Spirited," starring Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, and Octavia Spencer.
In the sneak peek, we are introduced to Ferrell, a period ghost visiting Reynolds, a modern man who is more than surprised to find that the Charles Dickens novel has some truth to it. According to a press release, the film's synopsis reads:
Each Christmas Eve, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Will Ferrell) selects one dark soul to be reformed by a visit from three spirits. But this season, he picked the wrong Scrooge. Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds) turns the tables on his ghostly host until Present finds himself reexamining his own past, present and future. For the first time, 'A Christmas Carol' is told from the perspective of the ghosts in this hilarious musical twist on the classic Dickens tale.
"Daddy's Home" and "Instant Family" director Sean Anders took the helm for this project, which he wrote alongside John Morris. Oscar-winning composer duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who won for their work on "La La Land," wrote the music for the AppleTV+ film, while "The Late Late Show with James Corden" alum Chloe Arnold choreographed the film's production numbers.
Sunita Mani, Patrick Page, Joe Tippett, Marlow Barkley, and Jen Tullock also star in the film alongside Ferrell, Reynolds, and Spencer. Pasek and Paul executive produced the musical movie alongside Diana Pokorny.
Watch the Spirited trailer
Apple Original Films calls their new modern "A Christmas Carol" retelling a "sweet and spicy holiday treat," and to be honest, the trailer looks like fun. It's certainly way more high-budget than a film like this needs to be — even a short one-and-a-half-minute teaser shows that in spades — but it's really nice to look at and that's never a bad thing for a film. Ferrell and Reynolds seem to play off each other well, and if you like their brand of comedy, it seems there will be a ton of it for you to chew on in this movie.
What I'm most interested in with this film is the musical element. "A Christmas Carol" isn't conventionally a musical, but Pasek and Paul have long since earned their reputation as a top-notch composer duo. Their roots are in theatre and Broadway work, and their biggest productions — "Dear Evan Hansen" being one of them — have been performed in the most professional and the most amateur of venues. In short, they are beloved in the musical world, and it stands to reason that they will bring the heat when it comes to the music in this film (even if the rest of the elements aren't necessarily up to par).
It remains to be seen whether or not "Spirited" becomes a new Christmas classic, but either way, it'll be fun to see what this new spin on "A Christmas Carol" can do. "Spirited" will screen in select theaters on November 11, 2022, before becoming available to stream exclusively on Apple TV+ on November 18, 2022.