Dickensblog

Thoughts on 'Spirited'

Is the end of February too late to share thoughts on Spirited? :-) I actually started writing this review in December. But what with one thing and another, I got way, way behind. I guess I could always wait till next December, but I'd really like to just get this done and off my plate, so with your kind indulgence, let's have a little Christmas in February!

I've seen Spirited called A Christmas Carol from the ghosts' perspective. That's only partially true. It's not actually an adaptation or a remake of A Christmas Carol; rather, it's a peek into a world where A Christmas Carol has played out over and over again through the years, every year targeting a new Scrooge. But yes, it does give us the ghosts' point of view on the process -- one ghost's in particular. 

Will Ferrell stars as the Ghost of Christmas Present, who's eager to reel in a really big fish this year. He advocates for Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds), a social media consultant who has no qualms about using every dirty trick he can come up with on his clients' behalf. Though Clint is considered "unredeemable," Present prevails, and Clint becomes this year's Scrooge. But things go awry when Clint seduces the Ghost of Christmas Past (Sunita Mani); Present falls for Clint's assistant, Kimberly (Octavia Spencer); and Clint starts deducing Present's weaknesses and pushing back. 

Casting announced for Encores' 'Oliver!'

The upcoming Encores! production, which will run May 3-14 at New York City Center, will star Lilli Cooper as Nancy, Raúl Esparza as Fagin, Tam Mutu as Bill Sikes, Brad Oscar as Mr. Bumble, Benjamin Pajak as Oliver Twist, and Mary Testa as Widow Corney. More information on the production and on where to purchase tickets is available here. Thanks to Rachel McMillan for the tip!

Full-length 'Great Expectations' trailer debuts

Thanks to Cody Quanbeck in the Dickensblog Facebook group for giving me the tip! The series looks grim and rather violent -- not entirely unexpected from the team that gave us that very dour A Christmas Carol a few years back. But we'll have to wait until we see the whole thing to know for sure ...

Release date and poster for BBC/FX 'Great Expectations'

I can't help but be reminded of the line "That's why her hair is so big. It's full of secrets."

The six-part series premieres on Hulu on Sunday, March 26.

(Image copyright BBC Studios/FX Productions)

'Shadow Chasers' to feature Dickens and his characters

In the adventure film Shadow Chasers, to be shot in Australia this fall, a young Charles Dickens will join forces with Oliver Twist, Scrooge, and Marley "to save Old London from imminent destruction." George Mahaffey (Chief of Station) wrote the script, and Luke Sparke (Occupation) will direct. Deadline Hollywood has the details!

Happy 211th birthday, Mr. Dickens!

How do you celebrate Dickens's birthday? Stefan Sierakowski celebrates it by placing a "happy birthday" ad in The Record, on behalf of the Toronto branch of the Dickens Fellowship. This year the paper has a delightful profile of Sierakowski and the Toronto branch, which also holds an annual Dickens birthday party where they raise money for a children's hospital. The Record article includes a look at the 2020 version of Sierakowski's Dickens birthday ad, which includes the touching line "You are, in every respect, our literary friend."

However you choose to celebrate the birthday of our literary friend, may you enjoy it!

Olivia Colman in new 'Great Expectations' teaser trailer

"Teaser" is the right word -- it's only 20 seconds long! But it does give us our first glimpse of Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham, along with Tom Sweet as young Pip. (H/T RadioTimes, brought to my attention by Lee Jackson on Twitter)

'Dickens and Prince': A review

Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius by Nick Hornby (Riverhead Books, 2022).

What do a 19th-century Victorian novelist and a 20th-century rock star have in common? More than you might expect, according to award-winning author Nick Hornby, who's devoted an entire book to the unlikely pair. 

The impetus for the book came from the 2020 release of a commemorative boxed set of Prince's 1987 album Sign o' the Times. This release -- which included a whopping 63 songs that hadn't originally made the cut -- got Hornby thinking: "Who else ever produced this much? Who else ever worked that way? It was supposed to be a rhetorical question, but then I realized there was an answer: Dickens. Dickens did. Dickens worked that way."

A visit to the gallery

A new piece at Open Culture highlights the work of Michael John Goodman, creator of the Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery, a collection of all the original illustrations from Dickens's major works.

TCM alerts

David Copperfield (1935) airs at noon Eastern today, and A Tale of Two Cities (1935) airs at 6 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday.