FX has boarded BBC One’s “A Christmas Carol” miniseries from Ridley Scott’s Scott Free and Tom Hardy’s Hardy Son & Baker, the cable network said Thursday.
A new three-part special of Charles Dickens’ timeless classic, “A Christmas Carol” is written by “Taboo” creator Steven Knight and features an ensemble cast including Guy Pearce (“Mary Queen of Scots”) playing Ebenezer Scrooge; Andy Serkis (“Black Panther”) as Ghost of Christmas Past; Stephen Graham (“This Is England”) as Jacob Marley; Charlotte Riley (“Peaky Blinders”) as Lottie; Joe Alwyn (“The Favourite”) as Bob Cratchit; Vinette Robinson (“Doctor Who”) as Mary Cratchit; Rutger Hauer (“True Blood”) as the Ghost of Christmas Future; Kayvan Novak (“What We Do In The Shadows”) as Ali Baba and Lenny Rush (“Old Boys”) as Tim Cratchit.
Per FX, the miniseries is “a unique and original take on the Charles Dickens’ iconic ghost story” and “a haunting, hallucinatory, spine-tingling immersion into Scrooge’s dark night of the soul.”
“A Christmas Carol” is written and executive produced by Knight, executive produced by Hardy, Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, Kate Crowe and Mona Qureshi for the BBC, and produced by Julian Stevens. Nick Murphy (The Awakening) will direct. The project hails from FX Productions, Scott Free, and Hardy Son & Baker for BBC One and FX.
The project, which was first announced by BBC One in November 2017, is set to air on FX this December in the U.S. The miniseries is the latest collaboration between FX and BBC One after teaming on Knight’s “Taboo.”
“This production of A Christmas Carol will respectfully present what we believe to be a timely interpretation of a timeless story,” Knight said.
“We are incredibly proud to join the BBC in this latest creative venture, which builds on our expansive programming partnership to bring the best in television to audiences in the U.S. and U.K.,” Schrier said. “Charles Dickens’ classics, including A Christmas Carol, are timeless tales that have been reimagined generation after generation. We couldn’t imagine a better team to undertake this enormous task than Steven Knight, Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, and their formidable production companies.”
“A Christmas Carol is the first in a series of adaptions of Dickens’ novels, commissioned by Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama, and Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content, that will air in the next few years.
“We’re incredibly excited that filming has begun on Steve Knight’s brilliant interpretation of A Christmas Carol, with Nick Murphy directing a phenomenal cast in what promises to be an iconic version of the classic tale,” Wenger, controller of BBC Drama, added.