Ti West and Johnny Depp Join Forces for a New and Possibly Terrifying A Christmas Carol
It seems there are only two certainties in life: death and yet another version of A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens’ timeless tale has been adapted so many times that it has become the cinematic equivalent of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You — you can’t escape it, but you secretly do not want to. From the heartfelt to the ridiculous, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge has been reimagined through countless lenses.
We have had the haunting black and white Scrooge with Alastair Sim, the musical version with Albert Finney, George C. Scott’s grumpy yet noble miser, Bill Murray’s corporate meltdown in Scrooged, Michael Caine bravely acting opposite felt in The Muppet Christmas Carol, and even Jim Carrey turning ghostly with Robert Zemeckis’ 2009 motion capture experiment.
Now, get ready for another trip to Dickensian London, this time courtesy of Ti West, the filmmaker best known for turning slow burn horror into an art form. Deadline reports that West will direct Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol for Paramount Pictures, with Johnny Depp set to star as Scrooge himself. Andrea Riseborough, known for her work in Possessor and Mandy, will also join the cast. The film will arrive in cinemas on November 13, 2026, just in time to either warm your heart or freeze your soul.
While Robert Eggers is already at work on his own gothic take on A Christmas Carol starring Willem Dafoe, West’s version promises to be “a thrilling ghost story set in Dickens’ London,” according to Deadline. That phrase alone hints that we might be getting something darker and more spectral than your average yuletide outing. With West’s horror credentials and Depp’s penchant for eccentric roles, this could easily be the most unsettling interpretation of the story yet — somewhere between The Witch and Edward Scissorhands, with a sprinkle of candlelit dread.
The screenplay, written by Nathaniel Halpern, will follow Scrooge’s familiar journey through his past, present, and future as he faces the consequences of his greed and misanthropy. Of course, the story is already filled with ghosts, doom, and existential terror, so giving it a proper horror touch feels less like a stretch and more like an overdue homecoming. After all, Dickens’ original novella was subtitled “Being a Ghost Story of Christmas,” and its influence on the Victorian fascination with spirits and the supernatural cannot be overstated.
The idea of West bringing this world to life is deliciously strange. His career has been defined by a mastery of atmosphere and patience. From the throwback terror of The House of the Devil to the grimy tension of The Innkeepers and the modern cult classic X trilogy (X, Pearl, and MaXXXine), West has proven himself as a director who understands both the beauty and horror of isolation and obsession. His films are often slow to boil, but when they erupt, they do so with shocking ferocity. If he applies that same structure to A Christmas Carol, Scrooge’s transformation could feel less like moral redemption and more like a descent into spiritual madness.
Johnny Depp as Scrooge also adds intrigue. Known for vanishing into his eccentric roles, Depp could bring a haunted weariness to the miserly moneylender, perhaps giving us a version of Scrooge that feels both tragic and terrifying. Andrea Riseborough, who has become a modern queen of the unsettling, seems perfectly cast for whatever spectral or tortured role she takes on. Between the two, audiences can expect performances that will lean into the uncanny rather than the cosy.
It remains to be seen whether West will deliver a faithful period piece with eerie undertones or dive fully into gothic horror, transforming Scrooge’s moral journey into a nightmare of spiritual reckoning. Either way, the potential is huge. With West’s meticulous style, the foggy streets of London could become a living, breathing organism, full of ghosts lurking in every shadow and bells tolling like ominous heartbeats.
While many versions of A Christmas Carol have leaned toward warmth and redemption, this one might remind audiences that the story is, at its core, about fear — the fear of death, regret, and the judgment that awaits us all. In West’s hands, those ghosts might not just be metaphors; they might be genuine horrors come to claim a man who has long evaded his humanity.
Paramount has promised that Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol will be a “thrilling ghost story,” but with West directing and Depp leading, do not be surprised if it ends up being this generation’s first proper Christmas nightmare.
