Octavia Spencer, Will Ferrell, and Ryan Reynolds to star in musical A Christmas Carol for Apple

It’s been a while since Hollywood put together another high-profile adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (it really probably hasn’t, there have been so many, but still) and now Apple is looking to get in on the game with a new musical version for its Apple TV+ streaming platform. Titled Spirited—because audiences are savvy these days and you’ve got to trick them if you want to get them to watch another Christmas Carol—this new version will reportedly star Ryan Reynolds as an “Ebenezer Scrooge-like lead” who gets visited by some Christmas ghosts, with one representing previous Christmases, one representing modern-day Christmases, and the third promoting Christmases that haven’t happened yet.

This comes from Collider, which says Will Ferrell is “expected” to play the Ghost Of Christmas Present (that’s the Santa one, typically), with Octavia Spencer “nearing a deal” to play a “good-natured co-worker” who works with Ryan Reynolds but also “helps Present teach the man kindness during the holiday season.” That seems to imply some twists, as the Scrooge character is usually the only one who interacts with the ghosts, but we’ll see.

Spirited will be directed by Sean Anders and John Morris, of Daddy’s Home fame, which isn’t a great sign, but again, we’ll see how it goes. It doesn’t sound like any of this has been confirmed, as these deals aren’t in place yet, but Collider seems confident about it. Now, at this point we have no choice but to point out that a pretty good musical version of A Christmas Carol has already been made, and while it didn’t have Ryan Reynolds, it did have Rizzo The Rat and Gonzo playing Charles Dickens himself.