Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell will spread some holiday cheer in theaters this month. Spirited, a new musical take on A Christmas Carol, will be re-released to over 100 theaters in the U.S. The sing-along version of the movie will open on Friday, Dec. 16.
As an Apple Original, Spirited began a limited theatrical run in November before it was released on Apple TV+ on Nov. 18. The new version will feature stylized lyrics on the screen during the songs, reports Deadline. The songs were written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the same team behind the songs in La La Land, Dear Evan Hansen, and The Greatest Showman. “Good Afternoon” and “Do A Little Good” are both in the running for the Best Original Song Oscar.
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Spirited was directed by Sean Anders, who wrote the script with his Daddy’s Home collaborator John Morris. Ferrell stars as a now-redeemed Ebenezer Scrooge, who serves as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Sunita Mani plays Bonnie, the current Ghost of Christmas Past, and Loren G. Woods plays the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. They all work with Jacob Marley (Patrick Page) to continue funding new human souls that need to be redeemed.
While searching for a new person to be redeemed, the ghosts land on Clint Briggs (Reynolds), a controversial media consultant. Marley believes that they cannot help him, and Scrooge insists that Clint can be saved. Octavia Spencer also stars as Clint’s assistant Vanessa. Judi Dench and Jimmy Fallon have cameos as themselves.
Spirited was not an easy movie for Reynolds to make, considering he went into it with almost no experience dancing. He recently told Big Issue that he had to get some advice from Hugh Jackman, who he is making the upcoming Deadpool 3 with. Jackman has plenty of musical experience on the stage and screen.
“It comes so naturally to Hugh that in a weird way, his helping was not helping,” Reynolds revealed. “He was like, ‘Just make sure you’re listening to those count-offs and those beats’. And I was like, ‘I don’t hear the beats, man. Help me out with something real here!’” Jackman did give him one important piece of advice. “Just remember to enjoy it, because if you’re enjoying it, we’ll enjoy it,” Jackman told him.
Would Reynolds make another musical though? He’s not sure. “I don’t think so,” he told Big Issue. “They’re just such vastly different disciplines. When you haven’t spent your life at a craft like song and dance, you’re just always playing catch up. Thank God, we have 10, 15, 30, 50 takes to get it right.”
