It takes a brave man to walk in the footsteps of Muppets, Mickey Mouse and Bill Murray - but Foxcatcher's Bennett Miller is that man.
He's planning a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol, the classic Charles Dickens tale of miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who learns to open his heart (and wallet) after being visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve.
Unlike Bill Murray's Scrooged, the plan is to make this a pretty faithful, Victorian-set adaptation, with the night-cap and the candle and all the traditional elements.
[Jim Carrey in Disney's 3D motion-capture version of A Christmas Carol]
Of course, even that doesn't set it apart from many previous versions: Jim Carrey starred in a performance-captured traditional take in 2009 for Robert Zemeckis, and there was an animated version starring Kate Winslet and Simon Callow in 2001. Not to mention the Muppets or Mickey a few decades before, or Alastair Sim before that.
The secret weapon this time, we hope, is the involvement of playwright Tom Stoppard, who won an Oscar for his Shakespeare In Love screenplay in 1999. If he can bring the same wit and flair to this, we could be in for something that feels genuinely fresh.
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[Jim Broadbent as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol on stage]
There's no news on casting yet, but Jim Broadbent and Patrick Stewart have both had acclaimed turns in the play on the London stage, so the filmmakers should not be short of options. In the meantime, however, let's remember the best ever adaptation.
