Why We Can’t Quit Ebenezer Scrooge

Want to break Grok, ChatGPT or your preferred A.I. bot? Ask it how many versions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” have been produced since the tale’s 1843 debut. Over the decades, the irascible Ebenezer Scrooge has been portrayed by everyone from George C. Scott to Mr. Magoo. That doesn’t include endless literary updates (Faith Moore’s “Christmas Karol” being a recent highlight), high school productions and other takes on the classic yarn. CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images And the remakes just keep coming. Indie filmmaker Ti West (“The Innkeepers,” “Pearl”) is working on a new version dubbed “ Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol ” to star Johnny Depp alongside Daisy Ridley, Ian McKellen, Sam Claflin, and Rupert Grint of “Harry Potter” fame. “Nosferatu” director Robert Eggers has his own “Carol” plans to include Willem Dafoe in a role Scrooge McDuck made even more famous. That could be the creepiest “Carol” to date, given Eggers’ film resume. But why? Sure, it’s easy to say Hollywood hearts beloved IPs for brand recognition alone. Plus, consumers will gobble up just about any Yuletide-themed flick. Netflix this season alone gave us fresh features like “Jingle Bell Heist,” “My Secret Santa,” and “A Merry Little Ex-Mas.” The Hallmark Channel alone is a St. Nick movie factory come December, though none present an existential threat to holiday classics like “Elf” and “Home Alone.” Those are partial explanations. The other reasons are more complicated and embedded in our cultural DNA. Humans love redemption stories, period. It doesn’t matter what race or creed one may be, nor how a person voted in a given election. We flock to stories where a flawed soul finds something meaningful at long last. Credit: TNT/Hallmark “A Christmas Carol” offers redemption on steroids. Imagine Tony Soprano joining the Witness Protection program and starting a nonprofit for vulnerable mothers. Ebenezer’s makeover is that extreme. That kind of arc always draws a crowd. Sometimes, said crowd can be massive. A certain pilot defied age, conventional wisdom, and his own ego to make “Top Gun: Maverick” the 2022 movie that Steven Spielberg claimed “saved Hollywood.” It’s just one of endless examples, but few characters are given the kind of emotional comeback Scrooge enjoys in the Dickens’ yarn. Americans in particular crave tales of second chances and attempts to wipe a personal slate clean. “A Christmas Carol” excels on both fronts, letting Scrooge amend his selfish ways before he becomes a diaphanous ghost himself. That also explains why we keep getting fresh takes on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The “Carol” overlaps are obvious, down to the green ghoul’s heart expanding three times in the final passages. Dickens never shared that kind of a literary X-ray with readers, but it’s hard to doubt Scrooge’s ticker didn’t undergo a change of sorts by story’s end. Ebenezer Scrooge offers one of the meatiest roles possible for an actor. It explains why so many legends have given life to the curmudgeon, including Patrick Stewart, Derek Jacobi, Michael Caine, Sir Ralph Richardson, and...

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