A modern-day film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol will feature a version of Ebenezer Scrooge who “despises refugees”, the director has revealed.
Musical movie Christmas Karma stars The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar as a contemporary Scrooge, called Mr Sood, who is haunted by three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, played by Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria, Pose actor Billy Porter and British singer Boy George.
Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha hopes the audience will be invested in the transformation of Mr Sood, and his chance to be a part of a society that doesn’t allow “Scrooges, twisted and shaped by prejudice, to grow.”
Former EastEnders actor Danny Dyer, singer Pixie Lott, Bridgerton star Charithra Chandran, Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville and Sanditon’s Leo Suter also star in the movie.
Chadha, 65, said in her director’s statement: “Our Scrooge, called Sood, is a rich British Indian who despises poor people and refugees in particular.”
“Sood has decided that immense wealth brings him status and standing, so to hell with the poor, unemployed and disenfranchised who didn’t work as hard as him to get where he is.”
The movie “is very true to the original text and sentiment”, according to Chadha, and will teach audiences “the urgent lesson of how prejudice, poverty and division in all its forms shapes Sood and our society today”.
The British-Indian director added: “A hundred and eighty-two years later, Dickens’ novella still resonates globally in today’s sometimes harsh world.”
She also said she was inspired by a family member, who lost his home in Uganda as a child, and came to Britain around Christmas time, arriving to a hostile welcome as a refugee.
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“For years he didn’t feel Christmas was for him and the hardships he faced as a child left him despising it,” she said.
She added: “For me, Christmas Karma is a legacy film with a humane message that will live on long after I do.”
Soap star Dyer, 48, plays a London cabbie, while Bonneville, 61, plays the ghost of Jacob Marley.
Influenced by gospel, bhangra, Christmas carols, rap and classic pop, the soundtrack features music from Take That’s Gary Barlow, former All Saints member Shaznay Lewis, and England-based Punjabi bhangra singer Malkit Singh.
Other adaptations of the classic novel, published in 1843, include a 2019 BBC mini series starring Adolescence actor Stephen Graham, written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.
On stage Doctor Who’s Christopher Eccleston played Scrooge in a retelling of the story at the Old Vic in London between November 2023 and January 2024.
There are also a number of film adaptations including Scrooged (1988), starring Bill Murray as an angry TV network president and modern-day Scrooge, and The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992).
The film is in cinemas from November 14.
