For lovers of tenuous puns – and they’re tenuous a penny here at Empire – you’ll have noticed that Robert Zemeckis’ 3D mocap adaptation of A Christmas Carol already had a Christmas Carrey on board (as in Jim)… and now it has its very own Christmas Cary El.
That would be Cary Elwes, who today signed on to the movie in multiple roles, further augmenting an excellent cast including Bob Hoskins, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman and Robin Wright Penn.
The question is, who the Dickens can the British-born actor be playing, given that Carrey alone is assaying not only Christmas grump Ebeneezer Scrooge, but also the three Ghosts that visit Scrooge over the course of Christmas Eve night. That would be the Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present and The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, of course.
Hoskins also told Empire recently that he had been tapped up for Mr. Fezziwig. We’d start a guessing game over who Elwes, Firth, Oldman, Penn and the hotly-tipped Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd might be playing, but the whole point of Zemeckis’ decision to shoot in mocap is that he can cast actors in certain roles, regardless of their physical appearance, size or age.
Nevertheless, that won’t stop you speculating, eh, readers? So feel free to use the space below to rack up some guesses.
In the meantime, we’ll go on the record by saying how pleased we are that Elwes – an Empire fave thanks to The Princess Bride, and a man who really should have a stronger career as a leading man – has been cast in such a prestige project. In fact, you could go so far as to say that all’s well that Elwes.
And puns don’t come much tenuous than that.