Paramount dropped a second trailer for Ti West's "Ebenezer" today, and the marketing hook remains the same: "The name you know, the story you don't."
The studio has given out very little plot information beyond that tagline, which hints that West and screenwriter Nathaniel Halpern are going beyond a traditional take on Dickens. The problem? This new trailer looks like as straightforward an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" as you could imagine. Marley's chains, the three spirits, the Cratchits, the graveyard, the redemption. It's all there, in order: essentially the whole movie in two and a half minutes.
I'm not sure how you can sell a film as a reinvention while showing the most standard version possible.
Then there's Depp. This is his first major Hollywood role since his 2022 trial against Amber Heard, and Paramount had him, in character, introduce the first trailer at San Diego Comic-Con. The performance on display here is very Depp-esque.
The supporting cast includes Rupert Grint and Daisy Ridley as Bob and Emily Cratchit, Sam Claflin as nephew Fred, and Arthur Conti as young Ebenezer in flashbacks, with Andrea Riseborough, Tramell Tillman and Ian McKellen also on board.
What's puzzling is West. The man behind "X," "Pearl" and "MaXXXine" is one of the more distinctive horror voices working today, yet the trailer mostly plays like a studio holiday movie. This could be a "one for them" gig before West gets to make what he really wants.
Now, can this movie be a success? Possibly. It's reportedly been testing very well, and the budget is said to be only $40M, though that figure is unconfirmed. Depp is also still immensely popular overseas. International audiences have not abandoned him and are clearly undeterred by the trial or the allegations. To them, he's still a great actor, which I'm absolutely not going to dispute. Depp has delivered highly memorable performances in "Ed Wood," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," "Edward Scissorhands," "Donnie Brasco," "Dead Man" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" (the first one).
"Ebenezer" opens in theaters November 13.
Chris Hemsworth, who originally had the lead role, has dropped out of Danny McBride’s “G.I. Joe” reboot, for undisclosed reasons, and been replaced by Bradley Cooper.