Will Ferrell is the Ghost of Christmas Present in trailer for ‘Spirited’ movie
Christmas #Christmas
Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds are putting a new — and musical! — spin on Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol,” like many Christmas movies that have come before.
In the movie “Spirited,” Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, who tries to get Reynolds’ character, Clint Briggs, to change his selfish, cold-hearted ways. The tables turn when Present starts reexamining his own past, present and future.
On Wednesday, Nov. 2, Apple TV+ released the movie’s official trailer. At the start, Reynolds’ character learns he’s been selected by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-To-Come to reevaluate his life.
“Like ‘A Christmas Carol’?” Reynolds’ character Clint asks the Ghost of Yet-To-Come (Loren G. Woods), with skepticism. “So out of all the people on the planet: murderers, people who do gender reveal parties? I’m the guy you’re going to haunt?”
“You know what? Forget it,” Yet-To-Come responds before taking off, hitting him in the face with a shackle in the process.
Within the mythology of the movie, Ebenezer Scrooge’s moral transformation in “A Christmas Carol” started an annual tradition: “Every Christmas Eve for almost 200 years, the spirits and their industrious support team have targeted one reprehensible human and forced them to relive some of their best and worst memories in an effort to make them a better person.”
Clint is the latest Ebenezer stand-in (called “perp” in the movie) — and he’s openly doubtful of the process, saying that “people don’t change.” But after meeting Clint, Present he tells his spectral co-workers that he has faith Clint is capable of becoming a better person.
“I believe that he can be a positive force for mankind,” he says of the marketing whiz, who built his career capitalizing on creating divisiveness among the general public.
Along the way, Present goes through his own transformation. For the first time, a human other than this year’s “perp” can see him: Clint’s colleague Kimberly, played by Octavia Spencer.
In a press release, Ferrell opened up about why he wanted to tackle this film, which features musical numbers galore.
“‘A Christmas Carol’ told from the perspective of the ghosts? I said, ‘Great. I’ve never heard of that before.’ And then (director) Sean (Anders) said, ‘Oh, and it’s a musical.’ He claims there was a 30-second pause where he thought he’d lost me. Then I said, ‘That’s fantastic!’”
While enthusiastic about the role, Ferrell said he was “shocked” by the effort a musical required. Turns out the many musical sketches he did during his “Saturday Night Live” didn’t prepare him.
“I thought I knew what I was getting myself into,” he says. “I had no idea. We had seven weeks of rehearsal. Between the vocal training, getting the songs down, the pre-records, dancing and singing on the same days, having enough time to stretch, there was no time for anything else. I’ve never stretched more than I have for this. And yet I’m no more limber than when I started.”
He said working with Reynolds helped him through long days on set.
“We really hit the ground running,” he said. “The first day on set, we looked at each other and thought: Well, too late to turn back now. It was really thrilling each time we reached the top of a mountain — only to have to climb another mountain the next week.”
Reynolds said, in the press release, that doing a musical might not have worked at other parts of his career — but this was the time.
“I wanted to do something that was totally outside my comfort zone and this most definitely is,” he said. “I live in mild to outrageous awe of Will. Working with one of my comedy idols has been pretty amazing.”
“Spirited” will hit theaters on Nov. 11 and will start streaming on Apple TV on Nov. 18.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com